The Pix Log
by Llafn Ysbryd
Summary: The Story of Pix, a young felyne who dreams of being a hunter, Stuff happens, part of an uncompleted series. I did this sometime ago. I haven't any interest in redoing it...
1. A Felyne Tale

The hunter rushed at the akantor his silver rathalos armour glinting in the sunlight. The akantor tried to gore him with it's massive tusks. The hunter nimbly jumped on to it's head and plunged his Icey dual blades down through it's thick scales and skull. The light in the pseudowyvern's eyes died and the body slumped to earth as it drew it's last breath. The hunter yanked his frozen blades out ignoring the spurting blood, he jumped down and walked to the tail. It was amazing the hunter grabbing the tail of the akantor dragged it all the way back to the city. Crowds of adoring people rushed out to meet him, there was a huge fanfare as he approched the guild woman for his award.

She spoke "Nyyaa!! wake up you useless pile of fur! Nyaa!"

The Hunter stared confused at the woman "What? I'm a hunter I killed that huge akantor over there! I want my reward!"

"I'll give you a reward alright, Pix you useless slacker! Nya!"

Pix woke to a swift kick in the behind, sending him flying into several pots and pans.

"Nnyyyaaaaa!!" There was a loud crash.

Pix slowly picked himself up dusting his fur and loin cloth. A large yellow felyne wearing a chef's hat scowled down at him. It was Raei the chief chef of the master's house.

"Cheh" she said "I should put you in a pot and boil you in a stew to feed to the Master with but he'd probably throw you up, Nyaa, seriously I have no idea what the master was thinking when he took a melynx desendant like you in, Nyaa you're always daydreaming about being a hunter, if you like hunters so much you should become a felyne fighter, Nyyaa!"

Pix didn't speak his mind, the fighters weren't real hunters, they couldn't take guild quests and were only really support for hunters. They were felyne fighters not hunters, and Pix wanted to be a hunter,

he knew he would be could be good at it, his size would be an aide rather than a hindernce , he would dance about on top of the wyverns , stabbing inbetween the scales with a pair of blades and sinking them in when the wyvern tried to get rid of him, and his equipment wouldn't need as much materials as a big hunter needed.

Scratching the back of his head Pix replyed to Raei "Nyaa, I like it fine here, I'll try harder not to daydream Raei-dono!"

Raei looked at Pix sniffed and walked away "Clean up that mess and finish cleaning those dirty dishes nyaa" She called back to Pix. Pix looked despairingly at the mountain of dirty dishes the Master had left, he wished that the Master didn't eat so much...

As Pix cleaned he thought, why was he here what was he doing, did he really want to spend the rest of his life daydreaming and working in a felyne kitcen. Anger burned in Pix's heart then an idea hit him, he knew a bit of smithing, he could buy a hunter's dagger and make a pair of blades and some armour from it! Pix grinned evilly and cleaned the plates with the speed of a kirin.

Pix rummaged through his stash of junk he grabbed two things a giadrome scale he had found and his money bag, he looked into it 700 zeni , he'd have some left over from buying the weapon.

The man he bought from just thought Pix was a servant buying a blade for his master. Pix didn't think that would be the hard part. What was going to be hard was using a smithry, he would have to do it at night while everyone was asleep and he would have to do it without waking Archindaulus

the smith Pix planned to exploit. Arch was a good smith one of the best in the city but people said he would often fall asleep, sometimes even smithing when asleep. Strangely Arch sleeping while working didn't affect the standerd of his work. Pix knew however that if he was caught Arch would skin him and use his remains for a bowgun.

So Pix waited for nightfall, when he would take the first step to become a lyian hunter!

Pix crept silently into the smithy, he looked around, the fire was still hot , it wouldn't take long to build the fire up to the right heat, it was the rest of the work that was going to be noisy. All the tools he needed were there. Pix went up the stairs of the smithy, into Arch's bedroom. This would be be the most dangerous part, he needed to put beeswax into the ears of Arch as so he wouldn't hear the hammer hitting the metal. Pix creeped closer to Arch taking out the beeswax he had specailly brought for this purpose.

Pix filled one ear, then Arch shifted "Hmmm, stoke up the fires summore will ya" he mumbled in his sleep. Pix relaxed, he filled the other ear, then he crept back to the stairs, that was when he tripped and fell down them.

"Nnyyyaaaaa!!" Pix chrashed into a stack of weapons, which fell on him, he was nearly decapitated several times. Pix waited a few minutes then came out from the pile of weaponry. He began to forge his equipment, he had gotten as far as melting down the hunter's dagger when he felt a heavy breath on the back of his furry neck. He made a dash for it but was caught by the scruff of his neck.

Lifted face to face with Arch. "Nyyaa?"

Arch's eyes were still closed and he was snoring softly, Pix prayed that Arch wouldn't skin him in his sleep. Arch then started touching him all over as if looking for something or measuring him.

Arch then set Pix down "Felyne equipment" he muttered. Pix was about to flee, when he saw what Arch was about to do, he was starting to make Pix's equipment.

Pix watched in amazement as Arch began to forge a small suit of armour. It was quite stylish, and looked strong, the helm would hide most of a felyne's head, perfect for Pix's purpose. Pix wasn't quite sure how Arch did it but when he made a pair of blades, the right size for a felyne, he used a bunch of giaprey scales as well as the giadrome scale Pix brought and forged them into one of the blades.

When the blades had cooled and been set in thier hilts Pix took the giaprey blade and slashed it at a block of wood that Arch kept around for testing weapons. It went through easily. Pix inspected the cut, there was a bit of frost where he had cut, Pix was impressed Arch had managed to get an elemental effect from so few materials.

So equipping the armour, putting the blades on his back and leaving the money left over from his purchase of the now reforged hunter's dagger, Pix left. He paused at the door looking at his new thing he spoke "I'll call the blades Icepick and Poker and the armour... Nyaa.. Melynx Hope! Nya!!"

With that Pix ran off to test his new equip in a hunt.

A little while after he had gone Arch opened his eyes and smiled. "Nice names little hunter, I hope you will become a hunter like the one in your dreams, he was cool"

A voice spoke seemingly from nowhere it hoarse and raspy "For his sake I hope so"

Arch laughed "Yeah well whatever happens, we stand to gain, any way maybe now I can get some sleep"

As Arch went upstairs to his bed he muttered

"I wish he hadn't used beeswax, the stuff was a pain to get out"

The city where Pix lived was called Alicia, the oasis city, it was in the desert lands and quite ovbisoisly was built around a oasis. Pix had just sneaked out the city gates, Pix knew a bit about

being a hunter, so he knew it was important to collect things. Pix walked about the desert picking herbs, mushrooms and anything else he could get his paws on.

After a while of gathering Pix began to feel the cold of the desert night "Brr, Nya I should have brought a hot drink with me... Nya! I'll make a fire!"

Pix being in the desert ovbiosly found very little in the way of firewood but as he was searching he came across a trio of apceros. Pix grinned these would be good prey to test his swords on. Pix silently rushed towards the closest one, he jumped on it's back and before it noticed he severed it's neck the other apceros froze staring at their companion in shock, they could barely see Pix in the dark of the night. Pix gloated over his kill "Nya! I did it hehehee!" because he was gloating he failed to notice the spiky club like tail of one of the other apceros wooshing towards him

*thwack!* "Nnyyaaaa!!!" Pix crashed into the sand, this head buried in it. Pix struggled a bit , then his head popped out of the sand. "Oww, Nya, that was sore.."

A blast of hot air blowed at Pix, filled with dread he turned around. Pix stared at the apceros' beady angery eyes. He rolled to the side it just as it tried to headbutt him. Taking the advantage he thrust one of his blades into the ear hole of the apceros, killing it instantly.

Pix jumped on top of the corpse and prepared to fight the third apceros, but just then several piercing bird-like srieks sounded and several genprey converged on the remaining apceros.

It barely had time to scream out in pain as it was ripped and torn to pieces, the genprey gorging themselves on it.

Pix was wondering wether to run or fight when one of the genprey saw him, it leapt at him screeching. As Pix doged he felt one of it's claw scrape off his armour. Pix slashed at the prey's face blinding it, it flinched screaming and Pix cut it's throat. The other genprey circled around Pix now.

Pix rushed one but was hit on the side. Pix stuggled bravely, the monster had him pinned down and was snapping at Pix's head. As it snapped it tore one of Pix's ears off, yelling in pain he thrusted

Icepick into it's snapping maw of it, he pierced the roof of it's mouth and it keeled over, giving a feeble croak as it departed this world.

Wiping blood from his eyes, he looked around, there was still many genprey, they were more careful now, they were wary of this ferious little being. Pix rushed them again, jumping on the back of one of them. The other genprey turned to this one and to it's dismay attacked. Pix jumped off as soon as the others had attacked. By the time they realised that Pix had moved the unfortunate genprey was dead. Pix stuck out his tongue and taunted them.

The Genprey danced about with rage at being tricked like this. They were about to attack Pix when another genprey screeh rent the air, to Pix something about it sounded wrong, Pix hoped he hadn't brought a gendrome apon himself.

The genprey parted for this new arrival, It was slightly larger than the other genprey, but it wasn't a gendrome, Pix wondered why it was being treated with respect by the other genprey. Pix nocticed a bulge on it's throat. It faced Pix.

It was then that it breathed fire.

Pix had no time to dogde as this was a completely unexpected action coming from a genprey. As Pix flew through the air on fire he wondered why it was that the monster was breathing fire, he concluded that it didn't matter at the moment, what mattered was staying alive and/or tearing the monster apart. Pix hit the ground rolling the sand helped put the fire out.

He barely avoided the next burst of flame. Pix quikly scrambled up, he looked around , all the genprey were in a circle watching... this was very strange behavoir the whole thing felt wrong. As Pix leapt out of the strange genprey's line of fire. He ran in to attack as he slashed at the genprey he saw that it's mouth was smoking, and when Pix dodged it's fire breath again he noticed that it was causing it pain to breath fire.

Suddenly it changed the direction it was breathing fire, Pix held up his blades knowing it would do no good. A few seconds later Pix blinked, he couldn't believe his eyes, Icepick 's element had slashed through the fire. It must be because the fire beath is weaker than normal fire breaths, he thought.

An Idea then occoured to Pix. He jumped right in front of the fire spewing genprey. It breathed fire at him. Pix waded through the fire his blade, Icepick, splitting the flames allowing him to walk through. When the fire stopped the genprey barely had time to look surpiresed as Pix thrust his blade up through it's jaw. The genprey tried to open it's mouth put the blade kept it shut. Then the genprey did something very very stupid.

It tried to breath fire.

All the other genprey fled when they saw the firebeather's head explode. Icepick flew through the air narrowly missing Pix's head. Pix slumped down, for a monster hunt test, it had been really crazy.

Pix drunk a potion then, carved the genprey corpses. Putting it all in a bag he brought with him.

Then Pix went over to the firebeather's corpse. What he saw shook him badly.

The head was completely gone but the neck was still there. There was a strange bulge on the throat looking closer Pix could see there was stitches connecting it, It was as if someone had sewen it on.

Pix cut it open, as he suspected there was a fire sac inside, with various tubes sewn on into the throat. Pix was very worried this was totally unnatural, someone or something had done this to this genprey. Pix sighed , he harvested the fire sac, and put it in his bag.

Pix thought hard on his way back to the city. He had no clues or leads to help him discover who or what had done that to the genprey, He had problems of his own anyway he wondered how he was going to explain his sniged fur and torn ear. It was going to be hard to get new equipment too.

Pix decided he would ask for a few days off, then in this time he would set up his hunter person, he could sell some of the stuff he had collected, then use that to upgrade his equipment, his problem before had been that had no money to pay a smith.

As Pix came to the city gates, he would have do a hunter's test to get a licence. He would do the hardest test, an non-hunter could do. Most tests were hunting genprey or the like, this training would end with hunting a drome, but If a person took the yian kut-ku test , he could bypass all other training and instantly get a hunting licence. That is if he beat the kut-ku on one try.

Pix hoped people would find the idea of him taking the test amusing enough that they would let him take it... but first he needed to upgrade his equipment

"Nyya! So let me get this striaght , you got your ear chopped by a falling knife, then in shock you fell into the ovenfire? Nya?"

Raei stood before Pix shaking her head and tapping her pawfoot.

Pix nervously scratched his the back of his head with his paw "Uh, nya that's right"

"Hmm , and you want a few days off as well, nya..."

"Yes"

Raei turned her head to the side squinting at Pix

"I'll think about it, nya, but in the mean time show me your ear, it doesn't look properly binded, nya"

Pix let her unbind it and then dress and re-bind it. As Raei finshed she wisphered in Pix's ear,

"I may be only as old as you are, but I've tended to the wounds of the master many times, so I know the difference between a cut from a claw and a cut from a knife"

Raei tripped and pinned Pix as he tried to run,he pleaded feveredly.

"Nya! Don't tell the guild, nya, please you know what they do to unregistered hunters and felyne fighters!, I just needed to test my equipment, I'm going to take the test!, nya!"

Raei sat on top of Pix and sighed. "It's one thing" she started "being a useless daydreamer, that's dispicable, but actually putting your dreams into action, that's a whole different barrel of sushifish, that is something to be proud of..."

Pix looked up at Raei, he couldn't help but notice the way the sunlight playing on her yellow fur "Raei"

Raei stood up on top of Pix winding him, then walked off. As she pulled Pix off the floor she spoke,

"Nya, I'm not going let the guild know, I'm going to help you Pix" She smiled at him.

Unexpectedly she hugged him, "I'm so glad that you aren't a useless daydreamer and if you fail I'll make a terrible meal from your corpse, Nya..."

"Err, thanks, I think, nya..."

It was then that Raei kicked Pix out the kitchen door.

"Nnyyyyaaaaaaaa!" Pix sailed through the air hitting the ground face first.

"Bring me your stuff so I can have a look at it! If you prove me wrong about you I'll skin you alive myself, you useless ball of fur, get moving!!! Nya!" Raei yelled at Pix. He ran swiftly to his stash.

When he got there he started to hear a voice, "Teostra's fire!! I'm really lucky who would have thought there was all this neat stuff lying around, abandoned! Hey cool!! there's even a fire sac here!!"

Pix rushed in shouting "Nya!! get away from my stuff you dirty thief"

Pix started to have misgivings when he saw the man, he was young, not big but had a well trained body, he had a pair of goggles resting in his hair, which was black and unkempt. It looked kind of was wearing chain armour. He raised an eyebrow and scratched the stubble on his chin.

"Eh, yours? Me a thief?, you just trying to con me out of my find, you mangy moggie"

If there is one thing that felynes and melynx don't like it's being called a cat.

The man was about to get a facefull of Pix's paws...

The young man was not expecting a fight, generally felynes don't go around beating humans up, but Pix was angery and wanted his stuff. Pix flew into the man's face hitting him with all four paws.

The young man smashed head first into a pile of rubbish near Pix's slowly got up from junk.

"Oww, Whotca do that for?" He pulled some junk that had gotten logded in his messy hair "You got rabies or summit?"

Claiming a Felyne has rabies is an extremly insulting thing to do, It is likely you will get scratched repeditively and if you are a man, a strong hit to the meat and vegtables.

Pix came at the man in a flurry of claws, he screamed very loudly.

"Ahhh... not the face, not the face", Pix obiliged the man , "Ahhh the face, the face, please, daora's wind! just hit the face."

Pix suddenly stopped, The man looked up removing his hands from his face, he was covered in scratches and cut. Pix walked over to his bag of stuff as he picked it up and put every thing the man had looked at back in it, Pix asked the man a question "What is your name, Nya?"

"Elruk Verdain..." he said with confusion.

"Good" Pix stated as he began to swing his bag. He hit in between Elruk's legs.

"I'll remember it, nyyaa!!!" Pix shouted

"AAAARRRRRGHHH, my loot"

Elruk rolled around on the ground in pain, weeping.

"Heh, did you mean mine or yours, nya?" said Pix, rattling his bag of things.

Pix then brought down his bag on Elruk's head, knocking him out cold.

Back at the kitchen Pix unloaded his junk for Raei to look at. Raei shifted through the stuff, looking at the fire sac and the genprey materials, she was quite impressed by the armour and swords.

She put it all down and stared at Pix.

"Nya, there is some adventures you have to tell me, you couldn't have forged that stuff your self and a fire sac is an impressive find for a beginner, nya."

So Pix told her all about Arch smithing in his sleep, and about the altered genprey.

Raei tapped her paw foot, thinking, she spoke "That last bit you told me is worrying, nya, well now you have a higher reason for becoming a hunter, if you become a hunter then I will be easier to find out whats going on, nya. Hmmm as for Arch I think we might be able to force him to upgrade your equipment, I think you should get genprey armour and change Poker to a fire element genprey sword, nya, we need to do this before you go to try get into the test."

Pix nodded in agreement, then hesitated, "What about money,nya!!, I need to sell some stuff to pay for the smith"

Raei grinned "Thats where I come in, the Master gives me quite a generous salary, nya, you can think of me as you patron , many hunters starting out have patrons"

"Thanks Raei!"

Grabbing a Knife from the wall, Raei hissed at Pix "Nya!, if it turns out you were a waste of money I'll skin you alive for conpensation, nyarr!"

Instantly Raei turned back to a sunny dispostision.

"Nya!, Alright we go to Arch's smithy, Pix then to the hunter arena!"

Deep in a back alley Elruk was still clutching himself wondering if he would ever be able to give children, when he remembered he needed to sign up for the hunter test at the arena.

Arch was sleeping when he was thrown from his seat, he opened his eyes. The sight that greeted him was not the best; his appentices were running around like headless chickens and there was a particulary evil, sadistic looking yellow felyne on top of his chest, pointing a very large, sharp butcher knife at him.

Arch quickly decided that it would be best to close his eyes and pretend he was still asleep. He began to feel a pointy object poking his stomoch.

"Nya! Get up you lazy excuse for a smith I know you aren't asleep!" said Raei

"Nya!, don't kill him Raei!, please!, Nya!" Pix pleaded

"I'll skin him alive if I have to, nya!!"

"Why must it always be skinning with you Raei, nya?, You are such a violent person nya!"

Raei sighed "Alright... nya... , if he doesn't get up I'll just cut a toe off... or maybe his nose, nya!"

Pix was surprised at how quickly Arch got up.

"You... you're Simeon's cheif chef, aren't you? What do you want?" Arch asked, though he was fairly sure of what was wanted.

Raei grinned "Nya! You are going to upgrade Pix's equipment!, nya!"

With a flourish Raei presented Pix, who for his small size looked quite impressive in he armour.

Arch laughed, "I better get paid properly this time, ha I can recognise my own work anywhere, I wonder what the money left on my anvil was about, HA! So what kind of stuff do you want"

Pix showed Arch the genprey matrials and the fire sac, taking the armour off and giving one of his swords, Poker, to Arch, he said "Nya, Genprey armour, and a fire sword using those genprey materails aswell, nya, you'll be properly paid."

Arch scratched his beard, then gave a manic grin. He grabbed Raei and Pix and threw them out the door, slamming it he shouted "This won't take long, just wait out there until I'm done"

There was various hammering, hissing, whooshing, clattering, manical laugher, a scream or two and the odd stream of cursing. After a while the sounds stopped and the door to the smithy slowly creaked open.

"Come in, it's done"

Pix and Raei went in, what they saw imrpessed them, the suit of armour now looked like a hunter's genprey armour. The sword was still iron but had genprey scales, worked through it, the hilt used a genprey hide and there were fangs attached on the back for a backswipe. Pix picked it up and slashed the testing wood, small flames licked the wood, leaving scroch mark at the slash.

"It's a fairly weak elemental effect, but I only had a fire sac to work with, Oh just so as you know , there is a change of a weak paralising ability, though only if you slash with the fangs" Arch explained.

Raei and Pix paid Arch, they ended up having to pay a lot money, which Raei wasn't happy about.

As Pix went off to sign up for the hunter's test he thought about Raei's parting words to him. She had said "Nya! Right you must walk and speak with confidence, you must make the guild masters think that you will be a hunter, also, nya, I suggest doing the teamed test, fighting a Kut-Ku on your own with no experiance is a bit risky, you would be on a team with one other hunter, make sure that you are the one giving the orders, nya, otherwise they will just think of you as a felyne fighter. Nya!

Now go out there and become a hunter and remember if you fail I will skin you alive! Nya!"

Pix grinned, this was going to be fun.

"Bawhahahahahahahaha... ha!!!!"

Pix gritted his teeth, letting himself growl slightly, he was at the arena. There was three people behind the application desk for the hunter test, two men , a old and young one and there was a woman. All three were luaghing so hard that they were crying.

The woman pointed at Pix laughing "Heehee, Let me get this striaght, haha, you want, *giggle* to do the, Wohhahahaha!, the Kut-ku test!" She had to stop talking as she burst into a fit of laughing.

She suddenly clutched at her ribs in pain, "Arrgh, my old hunting wounds!" The other two ex-hunter tester laughed harder.

"A small cat like you has no chance at his, this is a test for people who are going to be hunters!, not a scruffy cat like you, if you want to go on the hunt become a felyne fighter!" the woman siad rubbing her ribs.

On the outside Pix was calm and cool, on the inside he was thinking of a miriad of ways of repaying the insulting woman. Pix scowled "Look, nya, I will become a hunter, there is nothing to lose by having me do the test,nya and besides think of the crowds you'll draw to the arena, nya."

The young man grinned "Hmmm, we could get a lot of mone.., er I mean the soul of a hunter is more important than the body"

A harsh cynical laugh came from the mouth of the old man "Heh, we don't have anything to lose, if he passes the guild gets a new hunter, if he fails we get some paperwork"

The woman stared at Pix "We'll have to pull a few strings, Felynes aren't really allowed to be hunters, not that there's an actual rule, it's just that... _Felynes don't make good hunters_"

"So , will you solo or team?" Pix barely heard her, I'll show them he thought, I'll become a great hunter...

Pix filled out the nessarcy paperwork and paid the entry fee, he was told when to come to the arena, it would be in the evening. As Pix went out the corridor to outside he let his anger out on the walls.

Later, people wondered what kind of demon had caused such deep groves in the wall.

There are nearly always people in the dark, commanding, one said, let the cat take the test, But a man much deeper in the darkness said "spice it up a bit"

It was early in the evening just about to get dark, Pix put on his armour and put his blades on his back. Then he went to the arena. He was lead into a small rest room that was connected to the arena.

Pix looked out the gate into the dusty arena floor, it was very bare, they had removed all platforms.

He looked up at the stands they were packed with people.

Pix sat down on one of the benches provided and began to sharpen his swords on a wetstone. He pondered tactics in his head for fighting a Yian Kut-ku. He wondered when the hunter he would team up with would arrive. Pix's ear's jerked when he heard the sound of someone walking.

Pix turned to meet his teammate. His eyes widened in shock then narrowed in rage.

"Nya!! You!!!"

"Gah!! You!!!"

There standing shocked infront of Pix was Elruk Verdain, in his chain armour, wearing his goggles and holding a sword and shield.

Elruk Verdain was not a man to hold grugdes, but the rules slightly change when you get hit in the sack and laserated all over. He was about to start a fight when he realised he would need the extra help.

Pix disliked being insulted and someone trying steal from him, he wanted to teach Elruk another lesson. Pix was about to empart seven different kinds of fear into him when he realised he would need the extra help.

Both Elruk and Pix were surpised when the other didn't attack. They circled around each other like a pair of monsters that were unsure that they wanted to attack. Pix was the first to break the ice, he did it with a slegdehammer.

"Nya! I didn't know they were accepting thieves into the guild nowdays." Pix sneered

"I didn't realise that cats were allowed to be fed to kut-ku, I heard that it plays havoc with thier fire sacs"

Pix eyed Elruk's weapon, it was large for a one handed sword, being bigger than the usaul size of one handed sword but smaller than a greatsword. The odd thing was that the shield didn't match the sword.

Pix was about to make another insult when the call for the hunters to enter was given. Pix swallowed then held out his paw.

"Nya! Look I don't like you and you don't like me, nya, but we need to pass this test, so what do you say, nya, work together to beat this Yian Kut-ku? Then we can go our seperate ways."

Elruk scratched at his stubble then gave a manic grin. He shook Pix's paw.

"Alright lets do this , wild cat!!"He yelled

Pix grinned caught up in the intisipation of the hunt, "Sure thing, thief! Nya!"

Pix and Elruk went out to the middle of the arena, the crowd cheered. Raei looked down from the crowd, she dicided to shout some incouragement, "Nya, Beat that Kut-ku or I'll boil you alive Pix!!!!"

Even over the crowd Pix could hear her, he sighed. Elruk looked down at Pix still grinning.

"Pix eh? Your girlfriend up there or something?" Elruk asked.

Pix was going to reply when a large roar came from the gate the monster would come through. Something was wrong, Kut-ku don't roar like that, Pix thought. He watched the gate of the monster gate slowly open.

Instead of a Kut-ku what rushed out was a Yian Garuga, Pix and Elruk only just managed to dodge it's charge. They both slammed into the dirt.

"WHAT THE HELL!!! WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FIGHTING A KUT-KU NOT AGARUGA!"

Screamed Elruk.

Pix could only assume that somebody had switched monsters on them, Pix was about to signal to be taken from the pit, when an insane idea hit him. Pix started to laugh then he shouted over to Elruk who had dodged to the left when Pix had dodged to the right.

"Nya! Hey Elruk!, let's take this Garuga down, we''ll get instant fame as hunters and we'll get the materials too,nya, it would be great start!! nya"Pix yelled manically

Elruk wasn't the kind of person to back out of a fight and he always liked a challange. When Elruk was a kid he was always getting beaten up, the reason was that at the age of 6 he was already growing facial hair. After so many times of being beaten by bigger kids he discovered that they no longer hurt him, their hits did nothing, it was not long after that, he learned he could hit back. After that he became a bully, until his father a master gunner beat Elruk up and gave a badass speach about being badass.

Elruk's father died after that speach, on a hunting Azure Lao-Shan Lung stepped on him.

Elruk after hearing the bad news vowed to become one of the most badass hunters in the world. Elruk then ceased his bullying and consentrated on becoming a hunter. But there was one other thing he got from his father.

Elruk laughed "Pix wanna know why I decided to take the Kut-ku test?"

Pix looked at Elruk wondering, then Elruk threw away his shield, Pix wasn't sure but there appaered to be a one handed bowgun in Elruk's hand where the shield had been, it was smaller than a light bowgun and there was a very small bow part, it was made from bone and metal. Pix rekoned it probably had a short range.

Elruk shouted "Like I would give up a chance like this! If we defeat this guy, the guild will have to accept my experimental weapons and they'll have to accept you too!!"

Elruk held up his small bowgun, "I call it, the 'bowpistol' !"

With that proclaiment Elruk sunk his blade into the ground then leapt behind it, he fired a shot or two from his bowpistol, then ducked behind his sword.

The sword was more like a shield, that was why it was such an odd shape, being flat on one side and curved on the other, with a blade edge running more Pix realised, the sword could be used like a small hammer. You could also hide behind it while reloading, Pix was impressed. The Garuga gave a scream, having recovered from being shot in the face. Pix sped forwards towards the Garuga.

"NYA! Cover me while I make a run for it's legs" Pix yelled.

Elruk obliged peppering the Garuga with four more shots, Pix was surprised that the small bowgun had so much power, it wasn't that much weaker than a light bowgun. Reaching the Garuga's legs Pix rolled forward slashing at them, the blades bounced and the garuga kicked Pix away.

"Nnyyyyaaaaaa!!" Pix flew through the air, the Garuga was about to pounch on him, when Elruk started to fire again.

"Go for the back of the head or the tail Pix!"

Pix rolled as he hit the ground then he ran towards the Garuga. It swung it's tail at Pix.

It looked around confused as Pix appaered to have vanished. A stab of pain told it where Pix was the Garuga shook it's tail trying to fling Pix off, but Pix had sunk Fire Poker deep into the tail and was hanging on to the hilt with both paws, he had Icepick in his mouth.

If the Garuga had been given time to think it would have smashed it's tail on the ground, but Elruk was arrivating it with his attacks. Pix Slammed Icepick into the tail, he would climb all the way to the head using his swords.

Elruk watched as the Garuga hopped about and fire licked around it's beak. Elruk swore, the Garuga was seriously pissed.

Elruk grabbed his blade and jumped out of the way as the Garuga came charging past, as he evaded he caught sight of Pix grimily climing up the back of the bird-wyern.

"Nya! Elruk aim for the legs, we need to decrease it's mobility, Nya!" Pix screamed.

Elruk slammed his sword into the ground and took aim.

Pix climbed onwards, each plunge of his blade causing the garuga to scream in pain. He knew this was the best plan for beating this monster, his and Elruk's weaponry was too weak to kill it any way other then damaging it's brain.

Raei was surprised at first she was raging and going to demand they be extracted from the pit as a garuga wasn't twhat they were to fight against, but as she watched it became clear that, Pix and Elruk were winning, the Garuga was confused and on the defencive, and whats more Pix was giving the orders.

Pix was on the middle of the back of the Garuga, he looked up and swore, it was headed for a wall.

"Nya! Elruk stop it!! It's headed toward the wall, nya!, I'll be flung off!"

Elruk put his blade on his back then ran at the Garuga holding the bowpistol in both hands firing.

It wasn't powerful enough. Elruk still running unloaded his bowpistol, and pulled out some priece S lv2, he hoped it work... he hadn't tested it with anything other than normal S lv1. He jammed them ammo in and fired the pistol, much to his surpise the bowpistol didn't explode. As he fired at the Garuga, it flinched a bit but kept charging onwards. It slammed into the wall.

Pix lost his grip on Icepick which was stuck in the back of the bird-wyern. He went flying into the wall and was dazed. The Garuga recovered quicker, it stepped back and went to bite Pix. Elruk rolled in just in time, he slashed the Garuga's head then slammed the flat of the blade on the top of the head dazing the Garuga. He grabbed Pix and woke him.

Pix wispered "Nya, Elruk while it is still dazed throw me on top of it, Nya!" Elruk threw Pix.

"Nnyyyyaaaaaa!!"

As Pix flew through the air he managed to grab hold of Icepick's handle, it hurt a lot but he clung on. The garuga went into a wild frenzy hopping and spinning and flapping. There was no way Pix could move while it was like this.

"Elruk! Nya! I need it stopped for a few seconds!!"

It was all very well to say that, but Elruk was sure that the pistol wouldn't be capable of handling something powerful enough to stop it. He sighed and shoved a crag shot into pistol. He fired. As soon as nothing came out from the barrel, he threw the bowpistol at the head of the Garuga, the bowpistol exploded. The sound and the force of the explosion stunned it. Pix wasted no time and pulled Icepick from the Garuga's body. He lept for the head.

Elruk, Raei and the whole crowd held their beath as Pix's blades sunk into the back of the Garuga's head. The bird- wyvern colasped, Pix slowly climbed off it's head. Everyone cheered loudly

They had killed a Yian Garuga first time! They were Hunters in all but paperwork!!

Rimesaw, Red hot poker, Demon spittle, bitter aegis,

"What do ya mean you won't let us be hunters!!!"

"Nya!! Yeah! We beat that monster fair and square!!,nya, It wasn't even the monster we were supposed to fight!! Nya!"

The three guild judges, flinched as Pix and Elruk slammed their fists down at the table the judges were sitting at, It crumbled. The judges were getting very nervous, there was an encreasingly angry mob behind Pix and Elruk... and then there was the felyne with a butcher knife, she was scary.

Raei hissed "Nya! THEY FOUGHT A GARUGA AND BEAT IT FIRST TIME AND YOU SAY YOU AREN'T GOING TO MAKE THEM HUNTERS!!! NNNYYYARRRR!!"

The crowd roared in unision with Raei, they liked Pix and Elruk's Judges were quickly coming to the point where they would have to choose between orders they recieved and thier lives.

They chose thier lives.

The paperwork was filled out amid cheers. When Pix and Elruk got their hunter cards, they were lifted by the crowd and brought to a tavern where a party ensued. Later after things had died down

Pix and Elruk grabbed thier Garuga materials and headed towards Arch's smithy, on the way they talked.

Pix looked up at Elruk "Nya, didn't we say we would part ways after the test...? Nya?"

Elruk shrugged and scatched his chin "Yeah we did..."

"Nya, we made a pretty good team didn't we"

"Yeah we did..."

"Nya, well, I don't think I dislike you as much now thief..."

"I'm starting to warm up to you too, wild cat"

"Nya, I think this is the start of a partnership"

"Could be, could be, I'm only with you cause your fighting style is badass"

"Nya, I'm only taking you cause I think your weaponry is really versitile..."

They reached Arch's smithy after some name calling and pointless conversation. Arch looked at the materials and shook his head, "This is no good at all, I need gendrome hides for your armour and ores for your weaponry, Pix I need more Giaprey and blango materials if I'm to make Icepick stronger,some icecrystals would be good"

"Hey! What about my stuff!" said Elruk

Arch looked at Elruk oddly, "Hey I make things for hunters here... not tramps and hobos"

Elruk's jaw dropped. Pix quickly spoke.

"He is with me, nya!"

Arch guffawed "You're just like master Simeon, picking up tramps and the like and turning them into hunters, anyway, for your weapons... I can make your sword into a posioned blade with those garuga materials, and I can keep the idea of that sheild/sword thing, I need ore though, some bones to give it a bit more flexibitly too... I have no Idea how that small bowgun of yours works so you'll have to do that yourself."

Pix spoke "Nya allright we'll be back before you know it!" Pix dragged Elruk out, as Elruk was unable to move after being mistaken for a tramp.

When Elruk recovered, Pix told him their plan of action, they would take two guild quests, one after the other, first a giadrome hunt in the desert, they would gather hot peppers and bitterbugs to make hot drinks there too. Then after they had done that they would hunt blango and Giaprey in the mountains, and mine for ores and icecrystals while they were at it. Then they return and upgrade thier equip!

Pix looked at the quests on offer, There was a lot, he managed to find a quest for hunting two gendrome in the desert. The other quest was for a bulldrome hunt in the snowy mountains. What worried Pix was that when he took the bulldrome hunt, the gildlady told him that there had been strange sightings and to be careful. Pix walked over to Elruk who was sitting at a table tinkering with another bowpistol. There were all kinds of strange bits and pieces. Elruk let out a yell holding up the bowpistol.

"Aha I've improved it, it should work better now!"

The barrel fell off. Elruk slumped in his seat.

"Oh well I guess I'll have to take an unmodified prototype"

He sweeped all the junk into a bag and took out another bowpistol. He looked down at Pix.

"We ready to go?"

"Nya!, we are! We'll go through the gates for our first quest and then for the second we'll take the balloon.

Pix and Elruk went to the designated campsite. They took some supplies and went out. They followed the tracks of the two gendrome, it wasn't long until they heard the first were two feasting on a apceros' corpse. The first drome fell quickly, it was completely surprised, a shot to the head from Elruk and Pix slashed its throat. The second jumped at Elruk who slashed it out of the air. It recovered quickly and fought off a very furious attack from Pix, there was a slight wind around him and a faint red glow from his blades.

"Devil dancing" Elruk whispered.

The gendrome pounched on Pix sending him through the air. Elruk fired some more shot and charged the gendrome. He slashed its side open. Pix recovered and cut it's legs. Elruk delt the finishing blow with the flat of his blade, splitting the gendrome's head open. Pix and Elruk carved the gendromes for their hides. They collected some bitterbugs and hot peppers then they called the balloon. Then it was onward to the snowy mountains.

Pix stepped through the snow, amazed. Elruk laughed loudly.

"What... you never seen snow before?"

Pix shook his head as he poked the snow with his paw.

"Nya, I've lived in Alicia all my life, what is this stuff?"

"Its water, the cold makes it like this or something, I don't know how works, I'm a hunter not a scolar... so I take it you have never made a snowman or had a snowball fight...?"

Pix looked at Elruk and blinked "No, nya... Wh..."

The snowball caught Pix full in the face and he toppled backwards.

Pix quickly caught on what to do and a snowball fight ensued. After Elruk showed Pix the joys of snowman making. Eventually they had to stop, they had a quest to do.

They mined all around the mountains collecting ores and Ice cystals. They got stabbed by vespoids and charged by anteka but they got what they wanted. They went in serach of the bulldrome, the quest information said that it was somewhere at the peak. They passed the time of searching by killing any blango and genprey they passed by.

Eventually it was the Bulldrome that found them.

It was a monsterous one, much bigger than the usual bulldrome, Its small eyes glinted with madness and there was a large hump on its back.

When Fighting a bulldrome you most commonly spend your time rolling then attacking while it was preparing to charge. Pix and Elruk were dealing with the monster very well. This was confusing Pix, he could see the stitches connecting the hump to the bulldrome but it wasn't doing anything strange.

Pix had warned Elruk when they started fighting, and told him of his previous encounter with a modified genprey.

Elruk believed Pix, after all, Elruk could see the stitches on the bulldrome. The bulldrome was fighting completely enraged. Pix didn't dare try to get on it's back. Elruk peppered it with shots, and came in for the occasional slash and bash. After a while Pix noticed that the hump rippled a bit when ever the bulldrome was hit. Pix decided to test this out. The bulldrome charged past him, Pix rolled and slashed it along the side. The hump rippled and the bulldrome grunted in pain. It changed direction and charged Elruk tossing him in the air.

"You can't do this with a bowgun" Elruk shouted and fired the bowpistol in midair. The Bulldrome was knocked to the ground. Pix ran over and slit the throat of it. The bulldrome breathed it's last.

Pix and Elruk went over to the corpse to carve it.

"What do you think is in the mystical mystery hump, Pix?"

"Nya... I don't know, it's weird that it didn't do anything strange, other than ripple ominously"

"Hmm... I think I shall call it the rippling hump of DOOOOM!!"

Pix raised a furry brow "Nya... shouldn't it be the rippling hump of anticlimax? Nya?"

Elruk shrugged and laughed. Pix joined in then went to carve. As Pix came close to the body, a wave of cold and revulsion sliced through Elruk, quickly he grabbed and threw Pix behind himself then he jammed his blade down.

Seconds later the body exploded a tusk whizzed through the air and lodged itself into Elruk's sword shield. Slowly Elruk moved the sword away.

A screech rang out in the cold air.

"Nya!! What the hell is that!!"

A creature similar to the shape of a gendrome stood, blood pouring and dripping off of it. Pix's mind reeled at the fact that this was what had been inside the hump, no wonder the bulldrome had been so maddened. As the blood fell from it, it became clear that the horror of this monster did not end there.

Kushala Daora skin had been grafted on to the gendrome, so had the horns. The tail had been cut off and in it's place was a lot of the tail of a Daora. Pix wondered how the monster had survived this horrific treatment. What was to happen next was to surprise Pix and Elruk the most.

The creature started a wind shield.

This Kushadrome, for want of a better name was obivously not a kushala daora but it felt like one. Pix felt that he was looking at an Elder dragon even though this abomination was not natural.

The Kushadrome noticing Pix and Elruk, fired an icy blast of wind from it's mouth both Elruk and Pix managed to jump clear of the wind but they got sliced as it passed, Pix felt the frost form on his armour. Unsheathing Icepick and Fire poker, Pix rushed the Kushadrome. Pix slashed expecting to connect but he only got air. The Kushadrome had disappeared.

Just then Elruk shouted out "Pix!! It's using the wind to make its jumps more powerful!"

Pix turned to see that the monster was on top of Elruk's sword-shield. Suddenly it was gone. Pix went flying through the air as the Kushadrome hit him.

"Nnnnyyyyaaaaaa!!" Pix hit the snow head first, thankfully the snow provided plenty of cushioning, so he didn't get wounded, his armour was fairly shredded by the attack of the Kushadrome. Pix quickly recovered and rolled to the side, his intuition served him well, a second later the Kushadrome landed where pix had previously been, raising a cloud of snow. Pix slashed again this time Pix was rewarded with a screech of pain. Pix then quickly hopped away.

Elruk was having problems. He fired his bow pistol several times but failed to get anything other than glancing hits. He shouted to Pix.

"I can't hit it while its got that damn'd wind shield! Pix! You'll have to break it's horn... WAIT! Do we have any flash bombs?!?"

Pix was busy keeping the Kushadrome from shredding him to pieces, the monster was hellishly fast.

As Pix fended off its claw, his eyes went red, and his blades glowed, he devil danced right in the face of the monster. It quickly leapt back so as to avoid being lacerated by Pix's insane attack. Pix stopped, sheathed his blades and put a paw into his pack, he had remembered that he had grabbed some flashbombs from the itembox before they had headed out. Pix barely managed to defend himself when the Kushadrome jumped him.

Pulling the flashbomb from his pack and screaming at Elruk to close his eyes, Pix smashed the flashbomb against the Kushadrome's head.

It arched up screaming, it's wind shield falling, Pix slashed it's legs wildly. Elruk took careful aim, holding the bowpistol in both hands. He sighted along the barrel at the horn of the Kushadrome. Then he fired, It was a pierce shot, it was going to hit but then the Kushadrome turned it's head at the last second, the shot tore through the side of it's head, blinding one eye then it embedded itself in the body of the Kushadrome.

It roared in rage and fired a wind beam in Elruk's direction, Pix hopped away from it, Elruk rolled to the side and fired a few shots into the Kushadrome. Pix rushed at it but was tail whipped back. It started its wind shield again. Elruk holstered his gun and ran at it. He rolled as the drome jumped.

Pix chased after it.

It turn quickly and let loose a blast of wind, knocking Elruk to the ground. Pix then slammed into the side of the Kushadrome. When it regained it's balance it jumped back away from Pix and Elruk.

It's eyes started to glow and the wind around it swirled faster and faster obscuring it in the snow blow up. The snow raced around like a miniature tornado.

Arcs of cutting wind randomly burst from the mini tornado, Pix and Elruk had a hard time avoiding the unpredictable attacks. The arcs stopped coming. Instead the snow tornado seemed to get bigger.

Unexpectedly it sucked Pix and Elruk in. Pix looked around, he had never even heard about anything this, from what he understood about Kushalas they can't go a thing like what they were experiencing...

They appeared to be on the inside of a swirling snowy dome. The Kushadrome was nowhere to be seen. Pix glanced at the snow of the dome... a silvery glint caught his eye.

"NYA!! DOWN ELRUK!!!" Pix dived into the ground and Elruk followed suit. A wind beam burst through the dome slicing where Pix and Elruk had been.

Pix got up shaking snow off his body, some of his armour crumbled off. Pix cursed. He went over to the racing snow.

"Nya I'm gonna go through!" he stated walking towards the whirling snow.

Elruk grabbed Pix and threw him back. Taking a bone from his pack, he stuck it halfway through. There was a cracking sound. Elruk drew the bone back half of it was gone.

"I don't think that it would be a good idea to try going through, looks like we're stuck in here."

Pix kicked the snow in frustration.

"Nya what are we going to do..."

Elruk sat and shook his head.

Another wind beam burst through, the pair rolled out of the way.

"Nya!!! I've got an idea!!" Pix unsheathed his blades and demonised, a red glow surrounded Pix, getting stronger and stronger, punctuated by white flashes of light.

Elruk looked at Pix in amazement. "What the Fatalis shit? Thats a charge type demonisation! You are only supposed to do that with hammers or greatswords what are you playing at Pix!"

With a final burst of white light Pix flung Icepick at the side of the dome. Icepick whistled through the air glowing a bright red of demonisation. It hit the snow, disappearing. Pix waited patting the snow with his paw. Elruk scratched his head, he was clueless as to what Pix's plan was.

After a while there was a sharp screech and the Kushadrome fell down into the dome, Icepick stuck in it's side.

"NYA! Shoot it now, keep it from jumping away, nya if we distract it enough the dome will fall"

Elruk slammed down his sword-shield and loaded up pellet shots. He peppered the Kushadrome.

It screeched in pain and fired a beam at Pix, who jumped clear.

As he dodged Pix noticed that the Kushadrome's mouth was bleeding, it seemed that this thing was doomed to die as soon as it was made, it's inner body must not have been coping with the bizarre wind powers of the kushala daora.

Pix rushed it, and tore Icepick from the Kushadrome. It tail whipped Pix throwing him back. Elruk quickly countered firing at it, to keep it from attack Pix. It shook it's head and fired a beam at Elruk

Forcing him to get up and run. Pix recovered and demon danced the drome, It swayed under the ferociousness of Pix's whirlwind like slashes, but Pix soon found himself slashing at air. Pix turned to shout at Elruk

"Nya!! Elruk! It's jumping at you!!"

Elruk had barely enough time to pull his sword-shield in front of him, when the Kushadrome clashed against him.

Elruk slowly opened his eyes, he found him looking straight into the face of the Kushadrome, he was about to yell out when he noticed the glaze to it's eyes.

"Oh" he said "It's dead"

He slipped out from under the thing's body and his own sword.

Pix wiped his blades on the snow and walked over to the body of altered monster.

"Nya, Looks like it got impaled on that bulldrome tusk that got stuck in your freak sword"

Elruk nodded.

"Yea... HEY! You just called my weapon a freak sword! I'll have you know that this weapon is a brilliant joining of the concepts of a sword and that of a shield!"

"Nya! It's basically a smaller greatsword" Pix said flatly.

"No it isn't, er okay maybe a little bit, but it works really well"

"Nya, you have a point... it still looks like the illegitimate child of a shield, Nya"

"Whatever I'll call the balloon and bring this sucker in..."

Pix stopped him. Looking at the dead body of the Kusha/prey hybrid he spoke.

"Nya... I'm not sure... I think we should take some evidence, nya and then make the bulldrome body look a bit more normal"

"Why?"

"Nya! Do you really want to attract the attention of whoever did this? I don't, someone who is doing something like this... Nya I hate to imagine what he'd do to witnesses."

"Hmm, I think any option that doesn't end with me being experimented on is fine with me, I'll dig a hole for the body and you carve the bulldrome"

"Nya! We'll leave a marker where we buried the Kushadrome"

"Huh, Kushadrome... that's a pretty cool name!"

So Elruk went dig a pit and Pix to carve. Pix managed to get quite a bit from the bulldrome, he was getting better at carving, but then a bulldrome was easier to carve than a yian garuga. It wasn't too hard to make the back of the bulldrome look like it had been near a bomb going off, he dealt with the blood splatter by scuffing the snow, the blood splatter previously hadn't looked like the result of a bomb's damage. The stitches were easy to take. As Pix was doing all this he noticed a patch of the bulldrome's hair had been branded, it was hard to make out but it looked like a serpent or dragon biting it's own tail. Pix carved it off carefully and put it in his pack separately from all the other carves.

He heard the sounds of Elruk huffing and puffing, there was an amusing plop sound as Elruk managed to get the body in the hole. Pix helped cover it over. They both stood inspecting their handiwork.

"You've done a good job on the bulldrome"

"Nya you dug a hole fast..."

"What'll we mark it with?"

Pix looked around he spotted a large stone standing upright. "Nya! That!" He exclaimed loudly.

Elruk dutifully brought it over. Pix asked for Elruk's carving knife. He scratched a wriggling snake on it.

"Hey! My carving knife! *sigh* It's ok I can get another" sighed Elruk.

With that they sent for the balloon. When it came their quest was declared clear and no one found out that anything strange had happened.

Pix slumped down, he and Elruk had told Raei about their encounter, after Raei had cooked a delicious meal they all slumped down, trying to think about the odd symbol Pix had found and who was doing strange things to monsters. After a while of wild conspiracy theories, Raei exasperated told Elruk and Pix to get their worthless hides out as she had work to do.

Pix and Elruk wandered a bit, then remembering why they went on a few quests in the first place, the went to Arch's smithy. They came into the smithy. Arch was busy with making items. He seemed to be working on monoblos armour and a crimson scythe. The odd thing about the monblos armour was that there was no left arm being made. Arch's apprentices were speeding around, Arch noticing them shouted. "Just leave your materials here! I'm busy at the moment, I'll have your armour and weapons done by tomorrow."

They left the materials need.

"Now scram!!" Arch shouted red faced.

Pix and Elruk scrammed quickly, not wanting to end up as a limited edition armour set.

They wandered about the city for a while.

"Hey I'm bored wanna go on a hunting trip?"

"Nya... Arch has our stuff, so we can't"

Elruk shook his head "Nahhh I've probably got some stuff you can use at my place"

The inside of Elruk's house was filled with workbenches that had experimental weaponry everywhere. There were bladed things , bowgun experiments, one of the more bizarre things was a round spiky ball it was like several blades joined facing outwards. Elruk noticed Pix looking at it.

"I call this the bladebomb, it didn't work that well... the person who used it would be in danger of being impaled when it went off."

Pix was amazed, he wandered a bit he came across a pile of gunlances.

"Nya... What?"

"Ah I was trying to find out how gunlances work... I mean people know how to make them, and can make lots of variations on the basic design but nobody really knows how they work."

"Nya, how did you get a hold of all this stuff"

Elruk grabbed somesort of bladed whip experiment, and swooshed it about, it locked up and a few of the blade part fell off.

"You wouldn't believe some of the things people throw out, and my father tinkered around some as well so there's things left over from him"

"Nya what is that?" siad Pix pointing at a large but rather stubby looking barrel with legs it pointed up a an angle slightly.

Elruk's eyes brightened, "Ah this I am proud of, it is a prototype of my bowmortar, with it taking down larger wyverns will be easier, it would probably be useless against really fast moving monsters though, it takes a while to position and load"

Elruk bent over and picked up a large bullet it was a bit bigger than Elruks fist.

"These are the shots... transportation of them is a bit difficult... as I said, this thing is the prototype"

As Elruk was talking the door to the house shuddered. It started to rattle and shake.

Then the door stopped shaking. Pix and Elruk went towards it.

It was round about then went the door burst inwards, hitting Elruk.

"Nya! Master?" said Pix looking at the large silhouette standing in the doorway

The man was large and strong looking, his hair was red and wild, he had goatee. He was missing an arm, the left one to be exact. Pix's first thought was why his master was missing his left arm.

"Master! How did you..." Pix was cut of as he was kicked through the air by the master.

"Nyyyaaa!!" Pix crashed into a pile of junk. The man walked over and pulled Pix out from the junk.

"Have some respect for yourself, you are a hunter now! A hunter has no master, call me by my name: Simeon Russk!" Simeon said.

Pix eyes widened. "Thank you Simeon!"

Simeon put Pix down. "Right, course now that you aren't a servant of mine you have to find a place to live, Ah I've got it"

Simeon pulled the door off of Elruk and slapped him a few times to wake him up. Elruk looked about with confusion. Simeon lifted him from the ground.

"Right, you're Pix's partner right?"

Elruk looked at Simeon trying to clear his head, "Yeah what of it you got a problem be me being a hunting partner with a Felyne?"

Simeon gave Elruk a manic grin "I like that attitude Kid, You are gonna let Pix live at your place

*whisper* that or I'm gonna use your skull as a drinking cup"

"I'll let him stay... he has to clear up after him though, I don't want cat hair everywhere."

"Good man" said Simeon throwing Elruk to the ground.

Simeon headed for the doorway, he was stopped by Pix.

"Nya! Simeon we have something to tell you, it's very important!" Pix yelled.

After Pix had explained all about the incidents with the altered monsters and the strange symbol, Simeon got up and went to the door.

"You said that the body of the kushadrome is in the snowy mountains right?"

"Nya right!"

"All right I'll go get the body and lug it here as part of my training!"

"Nya? Training?"asked Pix, confused.

"Yeah, I need to be able to wield a sycthe one handed, the journey from the mountains to the desert will help with that, so will lugging back a dead drome body while running"

Simeon was in the doorway.

"Nya!, wait! What do we do?"

Simeon talked without turning around.

"Do more quests get your hunting rank up, listen out for rumours, I'll give you and Elruk some training when I get back!" with that statement Simeon left.

Elruk looked at the doorway that Simeon had left through.

"Will he live?"

"Nya yeah! , anyway Elruk where is this equipment you said I could use? We've got a hunt to go on!"


	2. The Warped Training

Here we follow the EX-master of Pix, Simeon Russk, The Warped Hunter!

_________

Simeon looked uneasily at the Tigrex, It looked uneasily at Simeon. This was going to be difficult, he was reluctant to use his scythe as having a dislocated arm in the middle of a fight with a Tigrex, would be bad, he only had one arm so if that got dislocated then he would be defenceless. The was also the body of the altered Giadrome to deal with aswell, he had to protect it.

"Nows a good a time to try it as ever"

The Tigrex charge him, there was a flash of red, Simeon flew backwards. He recovered, a slight red glow slowly dissipated from his body. He spat out some blood, but apart from that there wasn't a scratch on him.

"Damn, did it too soon, I thought I had got it, demonising my body to protect it."

The Tigrex swung round to hit Simeon, this time he dodged, He ran after it, a deep red light began to cover his fist only. He punched the Tigrex's tail, he felt the scales buckle and snap. It hadn't caused much damage but it was enough to fight with. As Simeon jumped back, he felt the strength drain out of his body, the demonising had been too much for his body.

As the Tigrex swung a claw at Simeon he wearily tumbled out of the way. He pulled a ration from his pack and gulped it down, he felt renewed instantly. As the Tigrex charged again a the red glow appeared again, it got larger and larger being punctuated with white flashes. Simeon punched the Tigrex. It stopped in it's tracks several of it's teeth had been broken, and it's head was cracked, not badly enough to kill it but enough to cause it a lot of pain. Simeon was also in a lot of pain, his hand was bleeding quite strongly, and hurt as only punching a Tigrex can hurt, there was a tooth stuck in his hand, he pulled it out with his teeth. He saw the swipe of the Tigrex's claw, he failed to demonise his body in time, and slammed backwards, three claw marks on his chest , it was a nasty wound, but it would have killed him if he hadn't demonised at all.

It was then that Simeon's madness took him, he began to laugh, a red glow seemed to steam off of his body, he ran forward, fast cause of the demonpower strengthening his body. The Tigrex sensing it's enemy wasn't the same as before jumped to the side and threw three icy balls at Simeon. With hellish speed he dodged all three, manically laughing all the time. The Tigrex swiped him a again.

For the first time in it's life the Tigrex felt fear, Simeon was there, eyes all red and glowing, holding the wing back with his hand. Quickly he grabbed his scythe from his back. The Tigrex roared as a large amount including it's claw was sheared from it's wing.

It leaped back and swung it's tail, hitting Simeon away. Simeon quickly jumped back, dodged it's head, ran round to it's tail and brought his hand down in a chopping motion. The Tigrex lurched forward and writhed on the ground as it's tail broke off. It had no respite though, Simeon leapt to it's side and pummelled it with his fist, punch after punch he landed, then there was the sound of some of it's ribs cracking.

The Tigrex got up and attacked, Simeon ended it with a swipe of his scythe , it went through the Tigrex's neck killing it as the red light faded from Simeon's eyes. There was a popping sound as the last swing wrenched his arm out of it's socket. Simeon stood next to the dead body and laughed, then body spurted from his mouth, his body locked and went numb, his sight faded. A searing pain filled his head.

Just as the darkness claimed him, he remembered the words of his mother.

"Just never forget, my little demon, every thing has a price, even for demons"

When Simeon woke he was in a small room, the Kushadrome body! He thought. He tried to get up a wave of agony sent him back to the bed.

"I wouldn't suggest moving, you have been healing for six days but your wounds are still bad..." siad a gruff female voice.

"The Giadrome!" He said trying to get back up, he failed again, he turned his head and caught sight of the speaker. It was a woman, with dull pink hair that seem unable to decide whether it was curly wavy or straight, she was polishing a black gunlance, it was hard to tell but it looked like it was made from black Diablos or black Gravios materials, it might have been both. Her armour was off, and you could tell straight away she was good looking, it wasn't like she was perfect but she was attractive. The long scar that ran along her back bizarrely seemed to add to her allure rather than take away from it. Her armour was in a corner, it was also black but it was extremely metallic looking, again it was hard to tell what it was made of, Simeon was a bit confused about this, most armours are easy to figure out what they are made of.

The woman spoke again, "The freak body is ok, the melynx here preserved it. Oh we are in a melynx village, I got them to help bring you here, Least I could do for you after you fought so hard against that Tigrex"

"You saw that and didn't help me, why?"

"To be honest, I think If I had tried back then you would have killed me along with the Tigrex" she said dryly.

The words stabbed him life a knife mainly because they were true. He hung his head in shame, perhaps control was too big of a price.

He heard the woman get up, she slapped him in the face.

"You have no business being ashamed, it would be more shameful if you feared to use your strength, you warped hunter"

"Warped Hunter... I like that... My name is Simeon Russk, you can call me Warped"

The woman gave Warped an amused smile.

"Iraitha Skinner, you can call me Black Iraitha"

"So Why you still here?" Said Warped, he saw on her arm a green cloth with white symbols on it, a sign that like him, she had been declared a melynx friend, which meant you would be received and helped by any melynx but you had to do the same, and go on hunting quests for them.

Iraitha shifted her gunlance and resumed polishing it, "That body, that thing you had with you, it's not natural, and I think you know something about it..." There was a fire in her eyes that told Warped that she knew something about these things as well.

"You tell me what you know first then I'll tell you what I know" He said

"I could just torture the information out of you, you know?" Iraitha siad.

"Hah I know why they call you Black Iraitha now, anyways torturing me wouldn't work, so let your cat out of it's bag"

Iraitha got up and put her gunlance to the side, she walked over to Warped's sickbed, she sat down on it and gave a deep sigh, a haunted look came over her face, for a moment Warped was almost sorry he asked, but he remembered how important this was, there was a lot more suffering than her around, and besides, if she talked it might help her.

"I hope you like stories, What I've got is a story about a little girl who loved her parents..."

I was a very young girl, my parents were a pair of hunting partners, we lived in a village on the border between the desert and the jungle. My Parents we skilled hunters, the had even taken down an elder dragon, he was a lancer, she was a heavy bowgunner.

It was a lovely day, warm but not too hot, I was pretending to be a hunter with a stick and a large piece of bark I had turned into a shield, the stick was my lance, I was having fun with the other children. My parents had gone off to help repel a Shen Gaoren at a fortress not too far from where we lived. I wasn't worried, I had faith that they would come back, They weren't the sort to fight a monster to the death, If things starting looking bad they would leave...

Some people would call that cowardice, I called it sensible, heh I said that even when I was a kid.

So there I was a happy kid, with happy parents in a happy village...

Looking back now, I took it all for granted. My parents came back triumphant! Not only did they kill the Shen Gaoren, they broke the shell and got materials from that too.

I was so proud, all the other children gave looks of amazement. My parents took me home, later when my mother was tucking me in she showed me a particularly lustrous lao scale, it shined bright red, she said that tomorrow she would get it made into a talisman for me.

For me as a little girl, tomorrow never came, I was a different person after that night.

To this day I don't know that much about how it started but I remember what happened to me.

When I woke It was still night, I felt a wetness along my back and on my head, I was bleeding.

I felt my mother holding me close, she was in her armour and was firing at something.

I remember the shock I felt at what I saw. It was some sort of melding of a two black diablos, two head and tails. You could see the stitches, and the blood and pus oozing from the shoddy connection. Even with the destruction it had obviously caused, you couldn't help but feel sad for it, it was screaming and in pain, and this was driving it mad.

Everything was burning. I saw my dad stabbing it with his lance. My mother and father were both badly wounded. The Doubleos had it's fair share of wounds. It smashed it's twin tails down on his shield, the shield of course didn't break... My father's arm did. He threw the shield off his arm and gave the Doubleos and deep stab in the side. My mother gave him covering fire to get back.

While The Doubleos flinched my father gave my mother a nod, now I understand that at that point they were probably dying anyway. My mother put me gently down and told me to stay put, not that I was going anywhere, I couldn't move with tear in my back. As my mother stood to leave, her back was turned to me. The sound of her tears falling was louder than the roars of both the Diablos heads. When she whispered "goodbye" it sounded like a yell.

Both my parents were both gutted on the horns of the Diablos heads, my father on one my mother on the other. They attacked with the last of their strength. One of the heads died, my mother slipped off it. The live head threw my father's body off. The Doubleos left, crying to the night, leaving a little girl an orphan.

I survived, got the blacksmith who surived to split the lao scale into two, and to make it into two talismans , one for me, and one for my parents graves.

When I was fourteen I left to become a hunter...

There were tears falling from Iraitha's lovely face, Warped felt tears of his own slide down.

"Sorry" He mumbled.

"Don't be, they died defending what they loved, it was a fitting end, a bit early but it was a good way to go, I don't think they let me live just so as I can whine about being left behind, my only regret is that the monstrosity wasn't killed that day." Iraitha said, fingering a half of a lao scale that was hanging on her neck.

Warped nodded, Iraitha dried her eyes.

"Now your part of the bargain"

Warped told her about Pix's encounters with altered monsters and the strange symbol on the bulldrome. Iraitha nodded then spoke again.

"Huh, A felyne hunter, he sounds pretty cool, what you told me about sounds like the same culprit, but it sounds like who ever it is has gotten much better at messing around with these monsters, there was one other encounter I remember, I was in the jungle, it was some sort of thing with the invisibility of Chameleos, but I didn't get to see what it was before it ran off."

Warped cursed, "The things are everywhere , that makes finding whoever responsible much more difficult."

Iraitha chewed on her lip "We should share information, I'll help you get the Kushadrome body back to Alicia, then we part ways and collect info, then after about six months we meet up again here!"

"No! This is my training" said Warped getting up "I can take care of mysel..." Warped's legs collapsed under him.

"I'll just take care of you when you get busted up then, I won't get in the way of your training, I'm pretty sure you don't intend dying soon" Iraitha gave a faint smile and pulled Warped back onto his bed.

"Heh thanks, I guess I'm not going anywhere for a while, don't you find it odd a one armed man trying to stay a hunter?" Warped said giving Iraitha a manic grin.

"Nope, It's clear that you love hunting, and the fact that you took down a Tigrex almost barehanded, shows that you still can, but now you need to rest, Jeffs, the Melynx witch doctor here says that you'll still be a few weeks recovering."

"Damn"

So Warped spent his time in infirmity being tended by Iraitha and Jeffs, he and Iraitha learned many things about each other, like the way if an egg was small enough, Iraitha would eat it whole. Warped ate lemons without removing the skin. Warped also discovered that Iraitha had a fatal weakness for cute things, strange considering how serious and grim she normally was. The melynx lived in fear of her hugs, only Jeffs enjoyed them... the old pervert.

When Warped could move around more he was still too wounded to leave on his journey, so he trained with Iraitha, and focused on his demonpower usage and on getting his arm stronger. This predictably led to Warped dislocating his arm, at first the melynx were scared of the screams of pain eventually they got used to it.

Weeks passed, Warped was now in better condition than when he had fought the Tigrex. He was stronger though there still was the risk of dislocating. His control of the demonising was better but he still had a tendency to use up too much of his body's energy. So Warped and Black Iraitha departed.

There was one thing hat worried Warped he had lost his memories of one day...

and no one would tell him what happened that day.

Arch waited uncomfortably in the dark. He hated these meetings, They were always really creepy and they always took ages to decide anything...

How such a bunch of incredibly wise, powerful people managed to squabble like little children he had no idea.

"I put forward that it was a mistake to bring the cat and the demon into it, we should have handled the problem ourselves" said an insufferably smarmy voice, dripping with arrogance.

"You know very well why we couldn't do that,chairman I ask that his comment is overruled" said an irritated female voice.

"Granted, Is pointless to debate, what is done is done" said a voice that sounded like it was extremely bored.

"Oh I am just reminded by you talking about the cat, It seems I have a troublemaker in my district who thinks he has more control than he does, He switched a Yian Kut-Ku with a Yian Garuga on some rookies, I'm sure he thought it was funny... I'd like permission to teach him the error of his ways." said a cold sharp male voice.

"Your district is the Alicia area is it not?"said the bored voice.

"Correct" said the cold sharp voice.

"Permission granted" said the bored voice.

"What I ask is why we are exterminating the problem, if fact why should it be a problem at all? I believe we could use this situation to our advantage, there could be great profit in this situation!"said a warm happy voice.

"The losses out way the profits, the hunters would suffer, and when the hunters suffer the whole economy suffers..." said the smarmy voice.

"There is the issue of the sleeping ones aswell... we don't want to anger them" said a voice that was hoarse and rasped, as if the person found speaking difficult or painful.

"Not that bloody stuff again! I thought the chairman told you to cut that out" Shouted the irritated voice.

"Yes I did, this is your second warning, the sleeping ones are myth, and as for you, woman! Keep your temper in check"said the bored voice.

Arch coughed, he felt nervous as he felt all the eyes turn to look at him.

"Ah It seems we have forgotten about you, on behalf of the council I apologise, you have been a most useful agent to us, you had a report to give us did you not" said the bored voice.

"Thank you Chairman, The cat and the demon are both making progress, it will be some time before they stumble upon anything they can use, so I suggest we stage some clues for them, not too obvious that our enemy will notice but simple enough for the cat and demon to figure out. You have all been given a written report, I ask the chairman that we review the new information and then reconvene to make a decision. I would remind you all that our agents are unable to hunt the experimenter, as she knows who they all are."

As Arch was leaving after the council had reconvened, he heard a voice. It was hoarse and raspy,

"You did not tell them every thing, you are not only a brilliant liar, you can hide the truth well too."

Arch smiled, "Indeed I looked into what you asked, things are moving, your suspicions are correct,I must say I would never have believed..." Arch looked around quickly.

"Oh he is gone, Heh well, this all is going to be interesting

Iraitha blasted the Akura Vashimu with the wyvern fire of her gunlance as she walked away from its smoking body, Warped kicked his, a large silver Akura Vashimu.

"I think mine was bigger" he said.

"It was only bigger because you picked the bigger one, said it had more fight in it, I swear I get tablescraps with you around" Iraitha pouted.

They had been travelling through the desert, though mostly underground, before they had left the melynx village at the foot of the snowy mountain they had been given a quest to kill a pair of Akura Vashimu. It had taken them ages to come across the pair and when they did it turned out to be really boring. The pair were vicious, but they had been inexperienced.

Warped cut off a few bits then went back to the kushadrome body which was on a small cart, there were various other in things in the cart as well, ores and carves and some other things, like a vespoid Warped had swatted with his hand. It had been annoying him while he had been mining.

The duo headed through the caves. They killed some strange breed of prey which had attacked them, Warped called them geoprey. He guessed they were different because of living underground for so long. The lack of sunlight meant their scales and skin was kind of translucent, the head was shorter than most prey, it had a wide thin bony ridge like a spade the bottom of it's jaw. It was a bit annoying as it would sometimes fling a whole load of earth at you. Not many people traveled underground, it was easy to get lost.

Warped and Iraitha stopped at an opening with a large lake. They set camp, Iraitha cooked some food, she wasn't a brilliant cook but she was a damn sight better than Warped at it. They ate and they talked about undocumented monsters.

"There must be loads of things down here the guild doesn't know about, I mean I've never seen those geoprey before, seems to me that the amount of monsters just increase"said Iraitha.

"Yeah it's like a whole load of species were nearly wiped out and are only now reappearing, If you go by the myths there was a disaster of Epic proportions..."

"You might be on to something there... I wonder how much of the land is unexplored, we've never gone that far out into sea either, most people stick to the coast"

"I heard there's some really nasty sea monsters the deeper the water you get"

They talked about all sorts of things before going to sleep.

To Warped it seemed like they had hardly taken their armour off when their was a huge splashing sound. Warped got up and grabbed his scythe. Iraitha shouted to Warped.

"It was waiting for us to take off our armour and go to sleep!" She grabbed her gunlance.

The question was what was It? It looked like a Plesioth but it's scales were silver and it was smaller than a normal plesioth. It had more fins too.

"I'm gonna enjoy this, get your armour on while I let loose on it, I can fight without armour"Warped yelled.

"You're trying to hog the fun ones again aren't you"Iraitha said, she saw the feral grin on Warped's face and shouted again.

"Alright, but leave some for me, I've never seen a plessy like this, it might be an altered monster"

"Lets find out will we!!"Warped howled as he raced towards the Sliver Plesioth, with little more than a pair of underpants.

"I am so hot for him right now"Iraitha muttered as she pulled on her armour.

The first surprise was the plessy's water beam, it was all purple and toxic. Warped had dodged it but could smell the venom of it.

The second surprise was that it could lob balls of poisonous water. Warped threw himself out of the way to avoid the splash of poison.

The third surprise was that the thing's scales and fins were poisonous. Warped got hipchecked, it was very fast for a plessy and it was closer to the ground, which made evading it harder. Warped flew through the air like a one- winged dove... with heart burn. Crashing into the ground Warped rolled to the side as a poison water beam slashed the ground where he had been, leaving a deep score in the ground.

Warped checked his arm, there was a light gash in his arm, it was a peculiar colour. He felt his head swim. He shouted to Iraitha who was struggling with a tasset.

"Throw me a antidote. I'm poisoned!"

Iraitha dropped her tasset, rushed over to the packs, she pulled an antidote out and threw it to Warped. Warped went to grab it.

A poison beam fired from the sliver plessy's mouth, it hit the antidote jar accurately, smashing it into a myriad of pieces. Both the jaw of Warped and Iraitha dropped in amazement. Warped turned to the thing, fuming. To him it seemed like it was grinning at him.

"I beat you think you're funny EH!!?! well hear's news for you I'm gonna kill and skinyou!"Warped shouted in rage.

The silver plessy jumped out of the water and landing it gave a "You and what army bub?" look to Warped.

Warped demonised his legs and sped forward to the Plessy, It hipchecked, but Warped jumped back slashing it's leg getting a large screech from it. It swung round, to Warped surprise it's neck extended like a Khezu, Warped parried it with his sycthe then pulled it at the plessy's head. It pulled back getting the tip of it's snout ripped off rather than it's mouth torn open. As Warped leapt back he still couldn't find any stitches on it, it wasn't maddened by pain either.

It must have just been a different type of piscine. Warped demon charged his legs red light with white flashes, then he somersaulted over the plessy's body. He released demon power into his sycthe as he spun, cutting off the big fin on the plessy's back. He rolled as he hit the ground. The plessy shrieked and froth bubbled at it's mouth, It stamped up and down in rage. It whirled to face Warped who cause of his instincts threw himself out of the way. It was just as well really as what fired from the mouth of the Silver plessy was not a narrow beam but a blast.

Even though he had jumped out of the way, he got hit by the outside of the blast. Warped felt his flesh being torn by the high pressure poisoned water as he was thrown back. The plessy turned, still insufferably smug. Warped slowly got up, the poison was acting faster due to all that movement he and been doing. He demonised his whole body and hoped that this was a poison that could be slowed by adrenaline.

At the campsite Iraitha finally got her tasset on. She put on her gunlance and Her shield. The dark materials of her equipment shined.

"Time to Cook this fish!"She yelled.

Warped went to the side of the plessy, he laid into it like a whirling dervish, It tripped and fell to it's side. Warped slashed it's belly, bits flying off of it. Unexpectedly, it's tail whipped round and hit Warped flying. Warped rolled back, he got up, or at least tried to get up, the poison however was altogether too strong and Warped had taken too much of it into his body.

The plessy moved in for the kill. It was then that a beam of dark light slammed into it's head. It turned around seeing Iratha, legs splayed and gunlance smoking. It jumped at Iraitha doing a dive at her then wriggling along the ground. Iratha braced her shield and fired a shell into the Plessy as it hit off of her shield.

As the plessy got up Iraitha jabbed her gunlance into it's side and pulled the trigger, blasting a shell close into it. It wobbled then fell again. Iraitha flicked a switch marked "Spread" she pointed the gunlance at the exposed belly of the plessy. The gunlance began to ready for wyvern's fire. Just as the plessy was about to get up the gunlance fired off. A load of black fire seemed to burst forth from the gunlance and tear the plessy's entire body.

When the Plessy managed to get up it's body was dripping blood, it went to roar in Iraitha's face. As the huge head came to rest infront of her, she stuck her gunlance into it's mouth and fired. The silver plesioth died instantly. Iraitha blew the smoke off her barrel, posing for a second. Then she threw away her shield and gunlance and ran over to to the supplies at the camp. She pulled out a antidote pot and rushed to Warped's side.

She saw Warped lying on the ground he had turned to watch her fight, his eyes were shining. Sweat was pouring off of him. She pried his mouth open and poured the antidote in. She nervously waited for a while, then warped started to cough and splutter. She took his head in her lap.

"Nice fight, was really cool the way you blasted it's head and your gunlance I've never seen one that can do spread and long shots." He croaked.

"Heh you did your fair share too, It was weaker when I came to it"Iraitha said.

"Aww comeon! You were so cool and calm, you hardly moved as well" Warped praised.

"What about that somersault you did that was really impressive" Iraitha countered.

"No more so than sticking a gunlance into a wyvern's mouth and blowing it's brains out!"

Warped and Iraitha looked at each other and both laughed. Warped slowly got up.

They carved what they could from the Silver Plesioth and as the carved they talked.

"So... Warped I've been meaning to ask you this for some time now but... how did you lose your arm?" Iraitha queried.

"Monoblos"Warped said flatly.

"A Monoblos? What were you? A rookie?" Iraitha said surprised.

"Naw I just suck at taking down monoblos..."Warped explained.

"Huh, well I know you are skilled, I mean if you had known that the Plessy was poisonous or if you had gotten an antidote you would have decimated that fish"Iraitha reasoned.

"Or if I had, had my armour on" Warped said.

"Yeah"

Iraitha helped Warped get his armour on, they put the materials they had carved in the cart with the altered giadrome and they left...

Warped and Iraitha trekked through the scorching sands, the sun blazed above like a gate to hell that flames were coming out of. The cool drinks seemed insufficient under the melting heat. They had put a cover over the cart in an effort to protect the kushadrome body along with the other stuff they had put in the cart. They thought that they might be lost which is a very bad thing to happen while travelling through the desert.

By the maps they had looked at there was a town near them. They trudged onwards, Warped gave an exclamation as he spotted smoke rising. The pair raced towards the smoke.

"It it a mirage?" Warped asked.

"If it is then it means the town we were heading to is fine, but we're still lost out here. If it isn't then we are saved but something bad has happened to Airena"

When they reached Airena a horrible sight greeted their eyes. The walls of the city had been torn, dead bodies were festering on the walls, the gates had be ripped asunder. Various buildings were on fire. The carnage was horrible, as they passed through the sundered streets looking for a sign of life it looked like a horde of demonic monsters from the pits and come out of the ancient myths and wreaked havoc. Iraitha closed the eyes of each body she came across.

All kinds of people had died, children, women, men, old people, felynes... There was so much death.

"If I find what ever did this I'm going to make it suffer" Warped fumed.

"Warped! I think I've found a live person!" Iraitha shouted.

Warped ran over where Iraitha was, she was kneeling over a man who as mumbling in coherently.

The man's wounds were so disfiguring it was impossible to make out any of his features.

"What he saying?" Warped asked.

"I can't make any of it out" Iraitha replied.

The man suddenly grasped Iraitha's arms, he looked into her eyes, unfathomable fear in his own eyes.

"Dos Diragierlos" the man croaked out, he had time for one last terrified look and then his eyes went blank and he departed to the next...

"Dos Diragierlos?" Warped said.

Iraitha closed the man's eyes , put him down, brushed herself off and got up.

"Dos Diragierlos..." mused Iraitha "I think that was a two headed demon monster from myth, one head was white, one was black it came to harvest souls for it's master, If I remember the myth properly..."

Warped clicked his fingers "It could be another altered monster!, lets see if we can find a larger cart for when we kill it!"

Iraitha gave one of her faint smiles "That sounds like a good idea!"

Warped and Iraitha scoured the town looking for a cart, they found other things, Warped found some psychoserum which would be useful for tracking down the "Dos Diragierlos". Iraitha closed the eyes of some more dead people.

Unknown to Warped and Iraitha was that eyes in the city watched them closely, waiting and judging.

There had been survivors of the Dos Diragierlos attack...

And they wanted revenge...

Warped drank a psychoserum to try and get an idea of where the monster was. He had never drunk one before. He felt like he was lifted from his body, he flew over the sand searching , flapping his wings, no prey would escape him, he roared with the thrill of the hunt, he had found his prey. He readied his wings to swooped down upon it, when a distant call draped chains on his wings, he felt them pull him back. "Warped!"

He didn't want to go back to his shell, he wanted to remain the wind, remain the hunter of the sky.

"Warped!"

The chains tightened and bit into his wings, he was being pulled back to his shell. He struggled against the chains, the smell of blood filled his nostrils and he went into a frenzy.

"Simeon, I don't want to hurt you! So stop attacking me"

The monster's mind fell and the man rushed to his body.

When Warped opened his eyes Iraitha was pointing her gunlance at his face, he leapt out of the way as it fired. He was holding his scythe, he saw that Iraitha was wounded and bleeding, he dropped his scythe. He dodged another shell fire from her, he demonised and got up close close to Iraitha grabbing her by the arms. Now that he was close to her he could see she was crying.

"It's okay It's okay, I'm me, tell me what happened?"

She looked at his face, searching, she slumped in his arms dropping her shield and weapon, tears flowing.

"Oh Simeon... You just seemed to freeze up when you drank the psychoserum, and then when I called to you... you went berserk and attacked me... I thought I had lost you... just lik..."

She stopped in mid-sentence , as if remembering there was something she wasn't supposed to say almost slipped out.

"What is it, what we're you going to say... tell me..."Warped pleaded, shaking her slightly.

Iraitha looked up at Warped tears in her eyes, she wiped them and sniffled a bit, regaining her composure. She looked Warped in the eyes.

"Promise me if I tell you, you won't be broken..."

Warped nodded.

"In words"she said, a bit of a waver coming into her voice.

"I promise I won't break" Warped said.

Iraitha took a deep breath,

"I don't know why you reacted like that to the psychoserum, but you have gone berserk like that before."

"The day at the melynx village that I don't remember..."

"Yes, you killed one and injured several others, took us the whole day to subdue you... the only reason they didn't throw use out was because of us both being melynx friends, and because of Jeffs. He told me that because you had used past your limit of demonpower you might go mad... many do. I... I'm glad I didn't lose you..." She spotted a bitter smile on Warped face "What is it?" she asked.

"The melynx village wasn't the first place that I've gone berserk" Warped said.

Iraitha looked at Warped shocked then she hugged him, "That means I'm not going to lose you to madness"

Warped blinked, "You mean you aren't worried about me going berserk"

"Nope , As long as it isn't permanent I can deal with it" Iraitha cheerfully replied pressing up closer to Warped.

Warped gave a manic grin and moved his head closer to hers, "I lov..."

There was a huge crashing sound and dust raised up. A figure with a huge hammer appeared in the dust. It spoke.

"All this drama is all very well but I want my revenge"

Warped was pissed, he looked irritably over in the direction of the figure, he demonised.

As the smoke cleared Warped momentarily dropped his demonisation out of amazement. The man who was holding the much larger than normal size hammer was tiny. How the small man did it Warped had no idea. The man was bald and had a bushy goatee. Then Warped remembered what the midget had interrupted, His demonisation came back.

The small man Looked at Warped and tut-tutted, "Don't ya know that sort of demonisation isn't much good for enhancing your body, you have to use it more like this"

No red glow appeared around the small man's body but he sped forwards like a bullet, as if he had a huge demonpower active towards Warped and Iraitha.

Iraitha and Warped jumped out of the way of the mini-man bullet. Warped pulled back his head as the hammer whooshed past Warped's face. Then the small man hit Warped's stomach with the butt of the pole of the hammer, blood escaped out Warped mouth and he went flying backwards into a nearby building, Which collapsed and fell inwards. Warped quickly sped from rubble, scythe out.

The midget batted Warped away with a flick of his hammer. Warped left a crater in the ground when he hit it. The small man froze a click sound indicated Iraitha had loaded her gunlance, it was pointed at the midget's head.

"Move an inch and I'll pull the trigger, you cueball midget" Iraitha hissed.

The man turned to face her, as Iraitha fired the shell, the man smiled and Iraitha noticed he was an old man.

Iraitha felt herself thrown through the air, then weight of a hammer connected with her back, she gasped fell to the ground the hammer pinning her down, she raised her head. The midget was there leaning on the hammer grinning.

"I.. I *cough* shot *cough* you!" she gasped.

The old man smiled, "You both have spirit, I'll give you both that"

Warped rose from where he had fell, his red hair wild, his eyes shone bright red, he seemed more monster than human. His muscles bulged and his teeth were bared, it seemed impossible but they were pointed like fang where they hadn't been before. The old midget noticed him.

"Careful, if you go too far you might not be able to get back" He jeered.

Warped spoke, his voice distorted with power, filled with feral savagery and demonic wrath "_**Let her go, and I promise you, your death will be swifter, I won't skin you if you let her go too!!"**_

"Oooh scary, I see you are still being inefficient with your energy usage, I think I'll keep my hammer where it is" The old man replied.

Warped's crimson scythe burst into flames, red flames of murderous intent replaced his eyes. The red glow surrounding his body dissipated. Warped let out a unearthly howl, rubble flew outward from him, then he blurred and there was a slight boom and Warped disappeared.

There was a loud clang as the old midget blocked Warped's ferocious slash, the ground buckled beneath them and Iraitha crawled out of the way as the old man had moved his hammer to block Warped.

Warped was face to face with the old man. "_**Better?**_" he growled.

"A bit" said the midget smiling.

Warped bit the man's nose off.

The man screamed in pain and whacked Warped flying. Warped spat the nose out as he flew threw the air. "_**You taste horrible old man!**_" Warped laughed. Warped was on an impact course with another building, Warped twisted his body round so that his feet touched the building first, then using the building as a platform he jumped back towards the old midget. The Building crumbled behind him. The old midget had one hand to where his nose had been. With only one hand he swung the hammer at Warped.

It pulled through the air. But the old man saw no Warped flying backward to hit a building, there had been no thwack as it connected. An evil chuckling alerted him as to Warped's location. He looked at the head of his hammer, there legs locked around it was Warped and Warped's flaming scythe reaching towards him. The old midget smashed the hammer on the ground, dislodging Warped from the hammer. Then the midget began to triple pound Warped.

Hit after hit was landed on Warped a dish in the earth began to form.

"NOOO!!!" Screamed Iraitha , tears in her eyes.

The midget continued to hit Warped. Suddenly it stopped, the old man's eyes were wide in amazement. The head of the hammer was gripped in Warped's hand. Warped was on his knees in a bowl shaped indentation in the ground, his was face turned to the earth, he lifted his head.

A ghastly demonic grin that thirsted for blood was on his face, his flaming red eyes shined with excitement.

Warped's hand began to contract, cracks started to appear on the hammer. Then it exploded an bits of it fell down there was one part of it in Warped's hand, he threw it and the old man, the lump of bone was glowing red with demon light. The old man hit it away with the pole, which was all that was left of the hammer. Warped leapt up red eyes glowing and laughing maniacally. In a blur of movement the pole hit Warped in the side of the head, right on the temple.

As Warped fell to the ground his last thought was "Bugger"

* * * * *

Warped dreamed...

The Demon looked to the Man. "_**You say you are not a monster but you are all the same, the monsters wear their demon on the outside, in their claws, their scales their fire and lightening, you men have yours on the inside, all were given these as so as they could survive. But what happens to a demon without a man, it has no purpose as the demon exists to let the man survive. So what does the demon do when it finds it's self without a man"**_

The Demon pointed at the man who, much to the man's own dismay shed his skin and it was revealed that the man was really a demon. The second demon cowered, it needed it's skin of man to keep it's power in check, it needed it to live amongst men. The second demon ran, it ran it was different, because of it's actions and feelings it had begun to change, to be something not man and not demon, It needed it's skin of man, to stop this, if it became neither demon nor man it would be accepted by neither...

As it ran the first demon's words echoed in it's head.

"_**Just never forget, little demon, everything has a price... even for demons**_"

The beast laughed at the not demon/man.

"Who cares about the price, who cares about people all you need is yourself, and those who need to be saved are weak, they should be left to die, those that do not accept you should be crushed"

"You should take what you want, seize it with your power! What you become will be able to"

the demon/man mumbled something.

"What I couldn't hear you... speak louder!, like THIS!!!!!"The beast jeered.

The demon/man stood up.

"_If I just took,if I didn't save, if I didn't protect the weak and if I just had myself... THERE'D BE NOTHING LEFT AND I'D BE JUST LIKE YOU, YA FILTHY BEAST!!_"

The beast fled, as it had always been more bark than bite, and was afraid of true power.

The demon/man sobbed.

"Why do you cry?" a voice said.

"I'm scared... I don't want to change, my power is scary..."

"Silly little demon, why are you afraid, the price you pay is just to risk being alone "

"I'm frightened, I don't want to be on my own I want to be accepted, what if they don't like my power... I hate it"

"If you hide, if you say you won't be accepted if you fear and hate your power, others will hide from you, they will not accept you and they will hate and fear your power "

"But..."

"You cannot control your power the way you are now, you must change become something different"

"It is so hard"

"It is, will you give up and just become like the beast? That is what you want?

"No... I don't want to lose to my power like he did"

"Then change, and do not fear the outcome, change and become new." the voice faded and the demon appeared before the demon/man again

"_**Choose your purpose and change**_"

"I want to protect, to save! To do what is right"

"_**Your price is to lose what you were before, there will be no return**_"

"I don't need to pay my sanity...? and my power?"

"_**The cost of the corruption power can bring is enough for your power... and you realise you barely have enough sanity to pay for anything anyway?**_" the demon said.

"Huh?"

"_**You are mad you hear me M-A-D!**_"

Warped woke, slightly confused, he was on a bed, his wounds were bound, he caught sight of the old midget.

"Just never forget, my little demon, everything has a price even for demons" he said

Warped launched himself at the old man, grabbing his throat.

"Why did you say that?, who are you?, where's Iraitha?,Why haven't you killed me?" Warped questioned.

"Do you want for me to answer those questions in reverse or sequential order?"The old midget replied.

Warped tightened his grip on the man's throat. He let go instantly as soon as he heard a voice speak out, it was Iraitha's voice.

"Turns out this old midget isn't our enemy, His name is Valur, he has a proposal for us"

Iraitha walked into the room over to Warped, she sat down and hugged him.

"I'm glad you're alright... Simeon" She whispered.

Valur leaned against the wall, rubbing his throat.

"Tomorrow we will hunt the Dos Diragierlos, in exchange, I will tell you about the origin of demonpower, I'll train you to use your demonising properly like I do and I won't kill you both, sound like a fair deal?" Valur asked.

Iraitha could barely restrained Warped.

"I'd like to see you try to kill us" snarled Warped.

Valur took on a horrific countenance, the shadows deepened around him, Warped felt an unbelievably huge intent to kill, it was so strong that for a moment Warped thought he was going to die.

"_**You wouldn't like to see me kill you, little demon...**_"Valur said, his voice sending a soul chilling cold along Warped's back.

"I'll honour the first and second part of the deal now, I will only not kill you when the Dos Diragierlos is dead." Valur continued.

Iraitha nodded.

"I'll tell you about my past, and stuff, after we have defeated the Dos Diragierlos" Warped whispered in her ear.

Valur began to pace back and forth, then he began to tell his tale.

VALUR'S TALE:

It was a long time ago, close to the beginning of everything but not the beginning, most people don't know of this ancient age, but there are remnants of it. I'm sure you have seen various ruins and such on your travels , they are from the age I am talking about. The most noticeable remnant is the Fatalis.

Long, long ago Fatalis were numerous, there were many of them, but they were subject to greater monsters, the demon monsters of myth, Like the Dos Diragierlos. But the greatest of these demon monsters were our ancestors , the Amosdia.

It is from them demonpower originates, and it is said that the blood of the Amosdia flows stronger in some humans, that their blood is purer.

So I will tell you of the downfall of the Amosdia, and of the creatures that caused it and brought about our birth.

The Amosdia, were scaled and clawed, their bodies were strong and long lived, even their young were masters of the demonpower, afterall the Amosdia were as demons.

As masters, the Amosdia, were pretty benevolent but there are always those who want power for themselves and those who cannot stand for having a ruler. The fatalis were one of these. The other were the Niñ, they were the beloved of the Kirin who at that time were also plentyful, and had not yet lost themselves. The Niñ were furred, horned and slight. The Amosdia, praised them as artists, as poets, as artists and as alchemists ...

But there was evil in the hearts of the Niñ, long had the Kirin known and despaired of this, their beloved children were twisted, broken inside, vile desires were in their minds, in secrecy the Niñ preformed vile experiments of alchemy and did other evils. They were wonderful on the outside but held the most horrible beasts inside. The Amosdia were always good, but they were powerful but not inventive, when they discovered that the Niñ were plotting their downfall they were greatly saddened they had high hopes for the Niñ. But the Amosdia were not ones to give up.

They pleaded with the Kirin to steal away all the half breeds, the Amosiñ. The Kirin were only too glad for the Amosdia had shown them a way to keep alive the beauty of their children. The Amosiñ had the traits of both the Amosdia and the Niñ, they had power of demon and the art of the Niñ. They had evil and good in their hearts.

The Amosdia knew that their end was coming, so they resolved to let themselves and the Niñ fade from the land. They vowed to kill as many of the Fatalis aswell for they were the instigators of the plots against them. So treachery and betrayal when forward. A great battle had taken place, the Fatalis killed both their allies the Niñ and their masters the Amosdia. But they Fatalis had suffered hard, they would never again be a plentiful race, the Kirin who had joined to fight the Fatalis, would also never be a race of minegarde again. The Kirin and the Fatalis both went mad, the Kirin mad with sorrow at the death of their children and the death of the pure Amosdia, the Fatalis went mad with rage at having been foiled. In the battle all the other demon monsters had joined and died, some survived, those we call the elder dragons... but they were the least of the demon monsters.

So the world was left to the Elder dragons, the lesser monsters and the Amosiñ. The Amosiñ discovered the world to be a harder place, crueller without the Amosdia to keep it in order. The Amosiñ were separated, they gradually changed. They came to look like we do now, none knows how this came to be, how we lost our scales our fur our horn and claws but lose them we did.

Some say we lost our fur to the Melynx and the Felynes, but the lyians can use demonpower, a strange mystery that... for it means that they hold some of the blood of the Amosdia.

What is stranger still is how no one knows from whence the lyians came...

So the world was different, it was a long time before the Amosiñ, now the humans rebuild a civilisation, the gifts of the Amosdia's power and the Niñ's genius were most useful. Know it goes well to remember that although the Niñ were evil their must have been good in them, how else could they have made such things of beauty? There was also evil in the Amosdia, they loved the hunt, and that could consume them. The difference is that the Amosdia did not give to the evil in their hearts.

The Niñ ignored the good in their hearts.

In the end the Kirin were responsible for this tragedy, they paid for it in the end. The Amosdia also paid for being the rulers of the world. The Niñ paid for being evil and the the Fatalis paid for their greed, things might have gone differently had the Fatalis not attacked the Niñ

So it seem that everything has a price, even for demons like the Amosdia, the Niñ, the Fatalis and the Kirin.

Valur stood up straight and took a cigar from his pocket, he bit the end off spat it out and lit it, puffing a ring of smoke.

"You wanna know how I know all this?" he said.

Warped nodded.

"I met a Amosdia, he trained me, and told me that story, it doesn't matter if you don't believe me, and don't bother asking where he is now, he died, years ago..."

Iraitha leaned back and exhaled, "That was some story... it feels right... I don't think you have much reason to lie to us..."

Warped began to laugh, it was a mad insane laugh, it got louder and stronger, It was unbelievably creepy.

"HaaaaHhhahahahha!!! It makes sense, Hehhoohoahakhhaahhabawhhaa! It all makes sense..."He raved.

A horrible look came over Valur's face "It does, doesn't it?, why you still have your claws..." a truly vile smile appeared on Valur's face.

"Come, we should train, I'll teach you... to bring out your blood." Valur said with a feral expression that rivalled Warped's.

Warped got up, and gave Iraitha a kiss on the cheek, "It would be safer if you stayed in here, I'll be back soon"

Iraitha looked into Warped's eyes and saw the fire in them, she had no doubt that if she watched this training it would be the last thing she would ever do. She grabbed his head, pulled it down to her's and kissed him fiercely on the lips, then she let go of him.

"We aren't finished, we have a Dos Diragierlos to hunt, we can continue after that, you still have to tell me your past, Warped!" Iraitha said, smiling.

Warped gave a momentary soft smile, then his manic grin came back and unbridled excitement returned to his eyes.

He grabbed the old midget Valur and sped out the doorways, slamming it behind him.

At first all Iraitha heard was the clash of metal upon metal, it got faster and faster, to her it oddly started to seem like a metallic song. It flowed, growing in sound and and intensity. Then an unnatural roar cut through the song.

After that, none of the sounds were remotely human sounding....

It sounded like a pair of demons were let loose...

The ground shuddered and Iraitha felt the presence of two powerful beings.

The inhuman sounds continued for a very long time, it could only have been a few hours but to Iraitha it seemed like days.

Finally the sounds stopped.

The door burst open, Warped stood in it bleeding and panting.

"Tomorrow we hunt the Dos Diragierlos!" he proclaimed.

Warped fell on the floor face first.

Valur came up behind. "He did it, he brought out the blood, pray that you don't get to see it tomorrow..."

The three walked through the desert, Warped pulling the cart behind him.

Valur looked back at the cart,

"It's a pretty weird thing you've got in that cart... what is it..." Valur queried.

"It is what it looks like, someone took some Kushala Daora parts and grafted them onto a giaprey, after removing the old skin..."Warped explained.

"That is nasty, what the fatalis dung was it meant to achieve?" Valur asked.

"No idea but from what I heard of it, it was able to create wind and control it like a true Daora..."

"That is odd... but then I suppose if you can draw out an element from the materials in a weapon this isn't much different, I guess" Valur mused.

They stopped at a huge expanse of desert, Iraitha spoke her eyes strange and otherworldly.

"It's around here..."

Iraitha had drunk the psychoserum, Valur had explained that it wasn't good for people with strong Amosdia blood to drink such things, he had mysteriously said something about it bringing out ancient memories.

There was nothing in sight, not a cactus or anything. Warped didn't like this, there wasn't even a cephalos around, and those things were nearly everywhere in the desert.

"It must be underground..." He said.

Valur looked up alert, he felt the sand shifting beneath his feet.

"We need to run, we have to get that cart of yours out of the danger zone!"

They ran back they way they came. The sand began to sink behind them. When Iraitha looked back she saw a huge whirlpool of sand was forming, it was rapidly getting bigger, the sand beneath their feet was already beginning to lose form.

They managed to escape it, they went back further to hide the cart. Then they rushed back to the place where the sand sink-hole was. It was huge, it wasn't swirling as much but it was still big, and sand was falling to the centre. Then it stopped, the ground began, vibrate, Warped got the same feeling that one gets when in the presence of an elder dragon.

"Jump down!!" Valur shouted.

There was an earth-shattering roar that sounded like two beings had made it. Then the a huge cone of sand spiralled up wards from the sink hole, when it settled, the sand was flat again.

"Get up quickly, get ready to dodge!" Valur ordered, Warped and Iraitha did so.

Sand spiked upward in pillars near them, they jumped and rolled to avoid getting blasted upwards by the sand. After the sand furiously repeated this for awhile, it stopped abruptly.

"It's coming, get ready..." Valur shouted.

Warped took his sycthe off his back and Iraitha loaded her gunlance.

A huge shape burst fourth from the ground. Sand poured off of it, two pairs of red eyes dared them to stand and fight. There was two heads, but apart from that you couldn't tell what it looked like for all the sand floating around it.

As it lifted it's twin heads and roared, Iraitha recognised one of the head, he gasped then a look of utter hate crossed her pretty face. Her eyes burned with anger.

"You! I'll kill you with my own hand's I'll make you suffer!!!" She screamed at it.

The Dos Diragierlos wasn't as decribed what was before them was no ancient demon monster, it was a huge black Diablos with a white monoblos head on it's right side. There were two tails two, the white monoblos' one and the black Diablos tail. The white monoblos parts were new but the Diablos was scarred with lance marks and there was a huge scar on it's face that could only have been from a lance. It was the altered diablos that had killed Iraitha's parents.

There was no doubt, Iraitha recognised the wounds her mother and father had given to it, even if it had new parts. As she flicked the switch marked 'long' on her black gunlance she yelled out to Warped and Valur.

"You two can have the monoblos, the Diablos is MINE!!" She roared at them.

"Either of you attack the diablos and I shoot you myself" She screamed as she fired the wyvern flame at the daiblos' head, a black beam crackling with energy blasted into the side of the Diablos' head, it jerked it's head, the side of it's face that didn't have a scar was torn open. One of it's horn broke off and spun through the air. It fell into it's back. The two heads screeched in pain as it's own horn stabbed it.

The monoblos head pointed it's horn at Iraitha, sand swirled around it and fired at Iraitha. Warped kicked her out of the way. The sand engulfed him.

"Warped!!"She creamed

"Damn you, you freak!!" She spat at the mono/diablos, firing shells of her gunlance, blasting hunks of the monstrosity.

The sand cleared, Warped was there unscathed, he grinned.

"Well you were right old migdet! Use the demonpower inside and it really makes you hard!" Warped shouted.

"It's Valur, you little demon!!!" Valur objected.

Warped shot forward, a boom sounding as he sped towards the monodiablos.

He was knocked to the side by a wave of sand.

Valur shook his head and ran towards the monodiablos. He dodged the sand that fired up from the ground. Then muscles bulging, he took the huge hammer(He had gotten another, Warped having crushed the last one in his hand) and dealt a heavy blow to one of it's legs. The thing's body was very large for a Diablos but it still shook with the force of the blow. The scales on the leg had broken, it was bleeding, the bone was probably chipped too. The heads roared in pain as one.

Valur , trusting his instincts demon jumped his way back, he wasn't quick enough, sand spun round the fake Dos Diragierlos forming a kind of shield, a spike of sand flew out from it and impaled Valur, who rolled as he hit the ground. Iraitha stepped infront of Valur, she flicked a switch on her gunlance marked 'Demon burst', The gunlance changed shape, the barrel widening and four spikes projecting from it. Two bits on the side unlocked to become supports.

"Don't think you are the only ones who can use demonpower!, though I get the feeling I've more of the Niñ in me" Iraitha said grinding her teeth, her eyes went red, a ball of the black fire began to form at the tip of the gunlance, being fed from the four spikes around the barrel edge. The whole gunlance began to glow red.

Warped got up, his scythe was on fire. His skin was kind of... scaly, it was still the same tone but it was scales instead of smooth skin. His hand had claws that gripped the pole of the crimson scythe. His eyes burned red. He gave out a monstrous roar, sharp teeth showing.

He had brought the blood out...

The ball of black fire fired off, huge now, glowing red, Iraitha was thrown back by the recoil. Warped demon jumped to the face of the monoblos, the fiery scythe sliced through the face and the horn, the horn was melted by the heat of the scythe. Warped jumped off as the demon burst from Iraitha's gunlance hit the freak. The black ball went in a bit then it burst, black lightening crawled across the mono/diablos. It was jerked off it's feet and into the air by the power of the burst. As it came down, it saw Valur, his hammer shining bright bloody red. Valur hit it to the side.

Iraitha looked behind her, at some point Valur must have went to the altered monster. Warped laughed manically, and raced forward to attack the mono/diablos while it was on it's side. It screeched in pain, Iraitha's demon burst had destroyed completely most of the back of it, the bones of it's spine could be seen under the bloody mass.

Warped was knocked back by Valur's hammer.

"Stay back!" Valur shouted "It isn't as vulnerable as it seems!!!"

So it wasn't sand swirled around it and covered it, the sand took a vaguely wyvern like form, except it was much much bigger.

Valur shouted back to the two as he threw himself into the sand.

"I'll get it's shield down, you two survive it's attacks!!" He shouted, then he was gone, disappeared behind the sand.

Warped rolled as sand fired up from the ground in pillars. The wyvern of sand spat sand down at them. They leapt out of the way, the sounds of twin roars came from inside the wyvern of sand.

Sand beams shot from the body of the wyvern of sand. Warped demon jumped around them. Iraitha fired shells in an attempt to destabilise the wyvern of sand.

There were fierce inhuman sounds of battle emanating from the wyvern of sand. Then there was a deafening cracking sound and the wyvern of sand resumed to being normal sand. A shape flew out and fell down on on the sand. Warped raced to it, what greeted his eyes was the broken body of Valur. Valur grinned weakly and mumbled. Warped nodded then faced the mono/diablos.

"We'll finish it! Old man!" Warped said. Then he flew towards the mono/diablos, like a dark angel of vengeance.

Valur had caused a huge amount of damage to the thing, there were dents over it's whole body. The monoblos head was dead, Valur's hammer had damaged it, and then it had been shoved down the throat of the monoblos, not many things would live long with a hammer of that size being pushed down their throat. The black diablos' head was mad with rage.

It seemed to have lost it's power over sand. Warped landed on it's back and lit fires on the tender exposed flesh. Iraitha had gotten close in and was stabbing and shelling vital body parts. The diablos' huge body was more red than black now.

Warped cut the spine of it, the altered diablos fell, as Warped did this Iraitha flicked her gunlance to 'long' mode, she looked into the eye of the diablos as it lowered, fear was in the eye.

"This is for my Mother and my Father you bastard!!!!" Iraitha screamed.

The wyvern fire burst through the diablos' head, in one side and out the other, It died instantly.

Warped's skin smoothed over, the red light in his eyes faded, the claws shrank, the fangs turned to normal teeth.

"Yeah! We did..." the place where the wound left from Warped losing his arm burst open, blood spurted out of it, his body went rigid, he had done a demon transformation, his body however was only trained to do it, not to be able to work afterwards.

"...it?" Warped fell down, his wounds bleeding stronger as an after-effect of the demon transformation. As the all too familiar darkness claimed him again he decided he was sick of falling unconscious, he would train his body better he decided.

Iraitha was the only one still standing. She dressed Warped wounds put him and Valur's dead body on the cart and then brought the cart to where the mono/diablos was.

She went to the dead carcass. She wondered if she could find any clues about the creator of this thing. The was nothing odd about the diablos except for it's insides, there was strange reorganisations there, the way the inside of the monoblos was was really weird too.

She guessed that it was the strange reconnections that had helped bring forth the sand controlling power...

Apart from that there wasn't much she found out. She carved off a scale on the monoblos that had a strange symbol on it, it was a dragon, or a serpent biting it's own tail. Iraitha wanted to find who had altered those monsters, not just for revenge but for the monsters' sake too.

Whoever was doing it was one seriously sick twisted person, no whoever had done that was no person, they were a beast... a true monster!

Iraitha lugged the cart to a cave. She began to make a coffin from what she could.

When Warped woke he looked around the cave, he saw stalactites and stalagmites, he saw Valur smelly dead body. He saw Iraitha making a coffin, he was glad it wasn't his. He silently got up and helped her make the coffin.

Not a word passed between them. They hadn't known Valur but he had been a brave soul, a fearsome hunter. They respected him, he was a true hunter.

They said nothing as they lifted his body and put it in the coffin. They scratched on the lid

Valur

A Master Hunter

Expert of the Hammer

Possessor of the Blood

Of Amosdia

May he reach the dawn

His greatness belied his size

Died while fighting a monster from Myth

The Dos Diragierlos

They buried him deep and as they covered him Warped said "You made it pay... Even if it wasn't a real Dos Diragierlos... Goodbye, old midget..."

As they travelled to Alicia, Warped told Iraitha the story of his life, we shall however, get a shorter version, some of Warped's monologue was just too boring.

Warped talked...

Interestingly I had a very large family, but they hunted a lot with my father, except for my mother. I had two brothers, they were twins; Cycil and Armuris. I had a sister Yivs she was the eldest, being 21. Cycil and Armuris both used a sword and shield, they were both 17. My sister used a great sword.

Father was the leader of the hunting party. He used a longsword. They fought all kinds of things, All of my family were strong demonpower hunters. The villages were scared and proud of my family at the same time. From a early age my Mother trained me in the use of demonpower and in hunting.

The other children didn't play we me, I was a "demon child" to them... Even if one of them had wanted to play with me their parents probably wouldn't have allowed it. I think I killed a velociprey when I was ten, that was a fun birthday. I didn't mind people not being friends with me, I had my family.

It was a medium sized village in the swamps and we were it's hated and beloved guardians.

We lead a happy life, we mostly got what we wanted, when you have four hunters in the family zeni comes in really fast. My mother had been a hunter before she settled down, I once asked her why she didn't hunt anymore and she gave one of her beautiful laughs and picking me up she said.

"My dear little demon, if I went hunting with all of them, they would all surely die!"

At the time I didn't understand, but now... Her demonpower was too strong, too uncontrollable. So my family lived our happy existence, Our walls were decorated in trophies from monsters, we had quite a few odd things, undocumented monsters... Finding and fighting those was My father's favourite, he had tried, while he had been part of the guild, to improve the documenting of monsters, he failed of course, the guild is large but they aren't that good with some of their paperwork...

It was after my father heard a rumour of a living plant monster, that looked like a dragon. They went out to find it. It was raining when they came back, thunder an lightening too, real dramatic. The door flew inward, My father was there, panting, blood streaming from cracked armour his long sword was broken. He looked grim as if a terrible evil had swept across the world. My two brothers

Cycil and Armuris both looked similarly bloody and grim their equipment was also damaged.

Mother rushed over, "Did you find it?" looking behind my brother she said voice as sharp and cold as ice "Where is Yivs?"

Father searched around the room, my brothers went into theirs to get different equipment. Father grabbed his dragon element sword, he had made it him self, called it Slayer king, if was from all sorts of materials undocumented as well as documented monsters. He pulled the armour that went with the sword out as well. My brothers came out, equipped in their dragon slaying equipment aswell...

"What happened!!" Mother shouted.

Father turned to face her, there was sorrow and excitement in his eyes.

"We lost Yivs, she isn't dead we didn't find the monster in the rumours, but we found something else, I think it might be a breed of Fatalis, It was magnificent, we're going back out to find Yivs and to slay the monster dragon!"He explained.

When they went out that was the last I ever saw of them...

I think that was when I began to go mad, my Mother was hit worse though, she continued to make meals for six, and left the door open for them to come in. It was kind of weird though, there was no record of their deaths, no evidence, they had disappeared, there was no signs of battle with a fatalis sized monster. There had been no bodies, the only thing to suggest that they were dead was the fact that they hadn't ,in three years, come back.

I learned this later but, my mother was secretly training, getting back into hunting shape. She was consumed by that and the strong possibility that her family except for me were dead, the only time she was remotely alive was when she heard news about Fatalis, it was always documented Fatalis though. It was around that time that the rumours that a humanoid monster was lurking about at night. There was sightings, it was said that it had claws and shining red eyes. Monster of all kinds were found dead, torn to pieces by whatever the creature was. There were claw marks on all sorts of monsters. Monsters began to fear the area around our village.

Once there was a report of a Chameleos, it was found the next day, torn by claw marks, tongue ripped out, eyes plucked, it was a horrific sight, the guts had been pulled out of Its body. Its claws had been pulled from their sockets. Then the hunters started to get attacked, the hunters that survived were gibbering madmen how spoke of nothing but a beautiful, red haired demon and how frightening it was, they frequently raved about ruby like eyes, they were haunted by these eyes in their dreams, the villagers had trouble sleeping at night because of the loudness of the people's screams. One by one the hunters fell, either being found dead, or witless.

It took them until the last hunter to make the connection between my mother's red hair and the hair of the night demon. They came during the day, too afraid to confront her at night. When the villagers surrounded our house I was confused. I asked my mother what was going on. She said nothing she went into her room. She put on her old armour, a strange dark brown leathery material, as hard a white fatalis scales. On her hands were claws they were a shiny red/black, made from some strange ore from a far-off land beyond the seas. Her long hair was held back by a band of the brown leathery material. She looked more monster than human.

She went out I followed. The villagers did nothing, one moved sightly my mother looked at him, he fainted instantly, wetting his trousers at the same time. She went to the boarder of the village, where she stopped. A red glow appeared around her, the skin of her body that you could see turned scaly and red tinged. Her hair flowed, she turned to face the villagers... One or two when mad on the spot.

One man died of fright.

"_**I am going now, take care of my child, if you don't I'll hunt and kill you all!**_"she said, her voice warped and distorted. Looking at her I felt I was infront of a very different kind of person to my mother, who all the same felt like my mother.

She bent down and whispered to me.

"_**Don't worry, I'll get back your father, your brothers... and both your sisters**_"She said.

She got up and as she went to leave she said the last words I would hear from her her voice sounded almost normal then.

"Just never forget, my little demon, every thing has a price, even for demons" with that she was gone.

To this day, what I still find worrying was that she said, both my sisters, I only had one sister.

I could pass it off as my mother being insane, but I know that she was sane when she left.

If she hadn't have been, all the villagers would have died that day...

I really lost it then, went completely mad I even killed some of them, they had to chain me up! Course they took care of me, they were too scared of my mother not to. They mostly only let me out to hunt. At some point or another I began to care for the fate of my keepers, There was one fight with a monster where my handlers got killed. It was the perfect opportunity to escape. I went back to the village, the elder asked why I had come back, and if I was going to kill them all. I said "If I leave who will protect the village?"

The villagers seemed not to realize but the chains only worked at first, by the time I had regained some sanity I was more than strong enough to break the chains, but I had not been rasied to be evil, my family were good people, my mother was a good person, although she fell into the darkness of madness. It wasn't long before the chains were taken off me by the villagers, it wasn't that they weren't afraid of me anymore, it was more that they realised that I wouldn't kill them all. They began to realise that the chains had become a bit useless too.

I continued hunting in the village for a long time, I left when they had enough hunters to fend for themselves. They had me chisel a message to my mother on a huge boulder before I left, They were still scared witless, me and my family had become a legend in that village, come to think of it, it was good that the village had no guild presence, it was in the middle of nowhere which made it easier for me to be a hunter elsewhere. Anyway what I wrote on the boulder was this;

I'm alive I've gone to be a guild hunter, too many painful memories here, don't kill all the villagers, they were scared, don't excuse them, but it was a reason. I love you mother, I hope, if you read this message, that you have found our family.

I wandered from place even when I was a guild hunter, that annoyed them no end, the guild prefers settled hunters, less paperwork that way...

There was no place I got attached to, the place I've stayed the longest at would be Alicia, but that was only for the sake of the half-melynx, Pix, who I picked up, I was right about him, he is gonna be a really cool hunter.

So there you go, I have many reasons for wandering, and one of them is to find my other sister, though it's unlikely I'll ever find her... don't even know what she looks like, I'm not too bothered about it.

Warped shrugged and leaned back from the fire they had set up. Iraitha stared into the flames.

"And I thought I had it tough.., Warped... when we meet up again after gathering information on the altered beasts, can I travel with you?"

Warped looked at Iriatha, her dull pink hair, her lovely face creased with worry, he made his decision, she was strong enough and he wouldn't fall into madness, he would control his power, price be damned, change wasn't always bad, and it gets boring talking to yourself all the time.

"I think, I'd like that very much, tomorrow when reach Alicia, we don't have to split up straight away, we can do a few hunting jobs, I'll introduce you to Pix, I think you'll really like that."

Iraitha smiled and hugged Warped they looked at the night sky it was beautiful.

Everything has a price, but some times the price is to give up something lesser, to gain something better. For somethings the price is too high, but others, you find that someone has paid it for you.

Warped didn't mind giving away his old self, he didn't want to be alone all his life...

_______

This was lots of fun to do, and bearing that in mind, I think it was worth doing.

I wasn't even trying to do fine literature (Not that a fanfic is unable of being high quality, in fact some fanfics are better than the source material)


	3. Lineage

Blood is important people say. It's thicker than water, has the life in it. Blood shared makes bonds, Blood shed makes bonds. Lose too much of it and you begin to die. Blood can carry life or the poison or disease of death. Blood is not to be let lightly. They say blood calls to blood.

Blood, makes strong bonds indeed... A curse and a blessing, a boon and a bane, such is the nature of bloody bonds. There is now denying the ties made by blood, sharing blood is not a simple decisions.

All ties and bonds however...

Can be sundered...

Of course, not without...

Blood.

Maruku Kurakama, was at this point in time, in desperate need of blood. He was a melynx, he was also a protector of his village, not that he had managed to protect it. A Gypceros had torn through killing all it came upon, Maruku and several others had tried to fend it off, they had failed. The Gypceros had eaten many of them whole, it poisoned others. It had a huge advantage in surprise, it flashed the crystal on it's head. People were easy to kill when they were blinded. It made no difference that Maruku's village were one of the few who could use demon power. They hadn't been strong enough.

So Maruku lay there, amongst the flaming remains of his village. He was poisoned, bleeding, and half of his face had been ripped off. Maruku had only to wait for his end. His mind was bitter, he hadn't been strong enough, there had been no human hunters to help him. Maruku thought, the humans probably didn't care anyway...

Maruku was in need of blood, he was dying, his bonds had been sundered by bloody death, by a poisonous wyvern in the night. Friendships and family all taken away in a few moments. It was a sad end, Maruku might have been able to accept dying if the wyvern had died too, but no, he and his companions had been to weak. What could a bunch of melynx do, what could a bunch of cats do to a mighty wyvern? Maruku coughed up some more blood, he didn't want to die, it wasn't that he wanted revenge on the Gypceros, it was just that he didn't want to end like this, like a failure. He didn't want to die, alone and defeated.

Maruku was dying, he didn't want to, but he had lost too much blood, and the blood that he did have was tainted by poison. Maruku didn't want it all to end like this. His soul raged, his body demonised, that just caused more blood to flow out of his body.

Maruku's vision started to fade, no he thought, I don't want to leave, not yet, not alone!

A voice sounded. "Do you want to live? , no matter the cosst?" It was a hissing voice.

Maruku painfully turned his head. There was robed figure which had a scaly hand stretched out to him. Maruku slowly moved his paw to the hand.

"I want to live... who are you?" he croaked.

A demonic grin of fangs was visible from the hood of the robe.

"I'm jusst a ghosst of the passt and posssibly the lasst of my kind"

Maruku faded into a world of shadow, he did not hear the robed figure. Maruku end was not yet up.

From tragedy and spilled blood, legends are said to be born... but then lots of things are said...

You can wake up to many sights, there are some sights that are rated very high to wake up to. Waking to a dull brown scaly face with large red wyvern eyes and a forked tongue is not however one of them.

Maruku woke to this face. He yelled out in fear really loudly and scratched it with the claws of his paw.

The scaly man reeled backwards falling on his behind. Maruku jumped from the bed he was on and ran towards the door on all fours. He had gotten half way when he collapsed. The scaly man, picked him up and put him back in the bed.

"You sshouldn't move, you are jusst recovering, I don't believe we have introduced each other have we? My name iss unpronounceable, so you may call me Jassper" Jasper said.

Maruku looked at Jasper.

"Nya I'm Maruku Kurakama, Nya You can call me Mar... So how did you save me? Nya and not to be rude but... WHAT THE IN THE FATALIS DUNG ARE YOU!!!" Mar said.

Jasper pulled up a chair behind himself and leaned back on it, he gave a hissing chuckle.

"I ssaved your life by giving you ssome of my blood, an action not with out it'ss benefitss and problemss, as for what I am... I am one of the lasst of a race that ruled the world, the Amossdia"

"Nya'uh? What you mean?" Mar said.

"All demonpower comes from the blood of my race, though I know who the humans acquired my people'ss blood I have no idea of how the lyian racess gained demonpower, or indeed where they came from, I don't supposse you know?" Jasper continued.

Mar shook his head. "Nya! There are some vague legends about a land beyond the sea, nya but apart from that, nothing!" Mar replied.

"Pity, thatss the ssame ansswer I've heard from all lyians I've encountered even sshakalass who told me the same as the rest. I've heard the legend, and it is vague, moresso than anyother myth or legend I've encountered."

Mar looked at Jasper, impressed.

"Nya, You got sense out of a shakala?" Mar said in amazement.

Jasper shrugged, "It was no easy task I admit! Took me three dayss to figure out what the blassted thing wass ssaying, turned out it had been inssulting me, sso I had to hunt it down and assk my quesstions of it again..."

Mar gave a weak laugh.

"Nya, so why save me?"

"You didn't want to die, do I need a better reasson than that?" Jasper hissed.

"Nya no arguing with that... Nya! So what's the deal with the blood you gave me?"

"Well... you will be much stronger in demonpower, stronger than some humans even, you'll need to learn to control that... You are more like an Amosdia in the skin of a melynx now, more demon than cat..."Jasper explained.

Mar was silent for a while, then he spoke.

"Nya I want to see my face..."

Jasper looked like he was going to object, but he snapped his mouth shut and rummaged around in a corner of the room for a mirror.

Mar gazed at himself, half of his face was ruined, there were patches of fur missing, he didn't look very good.

"Nya! Well it could have been worse, I could have lost my tail..."

Jasper trained Mar for many, many weeks. Mar made a bone hammer from the bones from the various creatures he killed for his training. After practising on many yian kut-ku. Jasper announced that Mar was ready to hunt the gypceros. So both of them sat in the undergrowth, small insects drinking their blood.

A gypceros stomped into the opening Jasper and Mar were watching. It began to drink from the large pool of water that was in the opening.

"Iss that the one" Jasper asked, for the fifth time that day.

Mar looked carefully at the gypceros checking it's scars and other past wounds.

"Nya! It is!" he exclaimed, he nearly ran out into the open to attack when he was pulled back by Jasper's clawed arm.

"Wait, we are too near the gypceross breeding groundss, we sshould wait until it movess from thiss area."

Mar nodded he looked back to the clearing where the gypceros was... It wasn't there anymore, as Mar and Jasper felt a hot breath on their backs, Mar spoke.

"Nya... Hey gypceros can move really fast can't they?" He said.

"Yess, JUMP!!!" Jasper shouted.

The gypceros' beck clacked as it snapped shut. Mar put his paws to his hammer.

"Mar, I'll back you up if things get nassty" Jasper said.

Mar grinned "I won't need back up, Nya!"

Controlling his breathing, Mar demonized. It was directed inside his body so there was no red glow, just a blast of wind and Mar's eyes shined red. Mar felt strength pump into his arms, he pulled the hammer from his back. A hammer normally that a small melynx normally wouldn't be able to use.

"Mar, don't put too much in your body, release the excess into your hammer!" Jasper commanded.

Mar's hammer did glow red. Charging at the gypceros which was standing clacking it's beak, Mar gave out a powered warcry with similar strength to that of a Khezu. The gypceros flinched and was hit in the side by Mar's hammer. There was a sickening crunch as the scales of the gypceros buckled under the demonpowered smash of the hammer. The Hammer whooshed round and hit the gypceros again. Mar swore as he was flung back, the hammer had bounced off a particularly rubbery piece of it's hide... On the other hand the blow seemed to have knocked the poisonous wyvern to it's side.

Mar bounded over to the still body, gathering power in his hammer.

"Mar! Are you so blood mad that you've forgotten? gypceros play dead!!"

Mar thrust his hammer at the ground and threw himself away from the gypceros just as it rose up clacking and flapping, it gave an outraged screech and raised it's head to the air.

Mar was caught unaware by the flash of light. He heard a loud deep resounding call, it repeated over and over. The call was unfamiliar to Mar but it seemed to be coming from the direction of the gypceros. It was not surprising that Mar didn't know that call, every hunter who had heard it had shortly afterwards...

Died.

As Mar's sight cleared, he heard the distinctive cry of several gypceros. Then he saw them. There was only six, seven counting the one that Mar had been fighting. Two were purple marking them as older gypceros. Jasper was nowhere in sight.

As the gypceros closed in on Mar, he was pissed.

"Jasper! Nya!! You bloody coward!, you said you would back me up if things got nasty, nya, If this isn't nasty then I don't what is!!" Mar shouted.

"You ssaid that you didn't want backup, I think you can handle thiss you might need to _bring out your blood_ though..." Jasper's voice echoed.

"Nya! But I'm trash after I do that, I nearly died last time." Mar complained.

"Don't whine child!" Jasper chided.

Mar sighed, then as the gypceros came closer, he began to bring the blood. First glowing red fur grew on the patches of skin where Mar had lost fur. Then his arms and legs lengthened, his claws grew larger, his teeth turning to big fangs. Then all of his fur grew longer, a yellow glow surrounded him, his eyes went savage. By then end of it he was as big as a small velociprey.

A feral roar ripped forth from his mouth. All the gypceros closed in on Mar.

Mar was a blur of yellow and red. He landed on the head of one gypceros and swung his hammer one handed down on it's back. The feet of the gypceros buckled beneath it. The other gypceros backed away and looked with horror as their comrade was quickly triple pounded into a bloody pulp.

A purple gypceros gave an outraged shriek and charged at Mar. Snapping it's beak, Mar caught the monster's head in his paw and stabbed it's side with the pole of his hammer. Then he lifted the hammer gypceros still on it and smashed it against a rocky wall. Before it could recover Mar ripped the top of it's head off with his claws. The sheer savagery of this attack put fear into the remaining five gypceros. They ran and flew off. Laughing insanely Mar jumped.

The Gypceros flapped threw the air confident that the demon couldn't get it up in the sky. It's blood froze as it saw a black shadow in the sun. The shape of a cat-like thing holding a large hammer became clearer and clearer. The Gypceros tried to turn about to hit it with a blast of poison but it was too late. Cackling madly and eyes shining Mar brought down his hammer on the back of Gypceros and it plummeted to the ground. It hit the ground with a disgusting splat Mar lept clear of the ruined remains and sniffed the air, smiling evilly he went after the fourth gypceros.

The Fourth gypceros panted heavily, it looked around wildly. There was nothing in the cave, nothing but deathly silence... The gypceros was badly shaken, melynx were like popcorn to it, a small snack they shouldn't become terrifying like that. The gypceros spotted some large mushrooms, it decided to eat them in order to calm it's nerves. As it was eating it heard the snap of a bone being stepped on. It turned slowly dread filling it's being. Nothing there was nothing only it was in the cave, the gypceros shuddered with relief and decided never to go near a melynx again. It turned to go back to it's mushrooms when it heard a voice rippling with danger and power.

"_**BOO!"**_

The Gypceros' time had come.

Mar shook his mane free of blood and exited the cave, he could feel the demonpower damaging his body, he felt like he was on fire. He quickly found the scent of the third gypceros.

The third gypceros knew it was being followed, it could feel the demonic gaze on it's body. That gaze so filled with bloodlust. It was running through the forest blindly fear controlling it's thoughts. Tripping over broken logs it fled, jungle creatures fleeing before it. Before it knew what was happening it found it's self in a cave. It looked around wildly trying to figure out where it had come from. Then there was a roar and a pair of blood red eyes glowed in the darkness. It wasn't Mar but it was a deadly monster all the same.

The Naruga feasted on the flesh of the foolish gypceros.

Mar stopped outside the cave, smelling the air he turned around and went looking for the second gypceros, the remaining purple gypceros. He didn't have time to tackle a Naruga over a dead corpse.

Mar skidded to a halt he looked around confused, he could smell the purple gypceros, it was near but nowhere to be seen. He circled the area, he spooked a bunch of aponoths but found no gypceros. He stood still and scratched the top of his head. He had no time to evade. The purple gypceros burst from some rotting foliage and grabbed Mar in it's beak it snapped down on his body. Mar scratched frantically at it's head with his claws and was thown to the ground. Before he could move he was hit by poison. Then the purple clacked it's beak and raised it's head to start a flash. That was a mistake.

When the whiteness of the flash cleared. Mar was on the purple's head. He knocked it's crystal off with his hammer. It screamed in pain. Mar jumpped down and swatted it with the hammer. He charged the hammer and brought it down with glee. Bits flew off the purple it shuddered and lay still. Mar turned his back and sped after the gypceros that had destroyed his village.

As the last gypceros flew away it had finally escaped, it ha been a while since it had fled from the clearing and was now well away. There was a tug on it's tail and it felt a stab of pain it looked back. There hanging on to it's tail was the demon monster.

Mar raised his hammer.

"_**Nurrr a quick death is too good for you but it's all I can do when we are this high up."**_

The gypceros fell from the sky, as it fell Mar lay on it's back he was tired now, killing the gypceros hadn't made him feel that good, there was no sense of accomplishment. He began to shrink back to his normal size, the red fur began to fade and his fangs and claws reverted to normal. He coughed up blood and his wounds opened. He faded from the waking world.

The Purple gypceros slowly got up, for a few moments it wasn't sure that it would fool the monstrous melynx. Wobbling on it's legs it went away deep into the jungle, it would have revenge but it would wait, it needed to recover.

Jasper stood over Mar, who was in the centre of the grizzly remains of the gypceros that had destroyed his village. Jasper smiled, he had learned much, the strange nature of Mar's transformation confirmed some theories he had or at last made them very plausible. Jasper lifted Mar's body and walked away.

When Mar woke his sight was filled with yellow. Then he noticed that it was a letter stuck to his forehead. Getting up slowly Mar saw that he had bandages all over his body. He wondered how long he had been out cold. He opened the letter, it was from Jasper. Mar looked around the small hut he was in, Jasper was not present.

Mar began to read the letter and frowned as he read.

Maruku, who has my blood,

I'm sorry I could not stay, but remember we are of the same blood now, we are as family. I've learnt much from you as you have from me. The nature of the things I have learnt however are quite different from what you have learned. I now know that your kind are not descended or related to mine the Amosdia, in fact you bear no relation to any original race of this land. When you brought out the blood if you had been of the Amosdia, you would have been scaley but this did not happen and then there was the yellow aura you had, the blood of Amosdia only ever glows red. I have gone in search of more clues to this mystery I have heard whispers of beings called the Sleeping ones I will try to find more information about that.

I suggest you protect your own kind, find a village guard it, do not attract the attention of the world of humans or their guild. There are many who would seek answers to the secrets of demon power, do not think that your power would save you against such, even if you were invincible there would still be ways you could be defeated. Never other than the most dire circumstances bring out your blood. Also if you marry and have descendants do not teach them to bring out the blood. I have no idea how it would effect them, also there are many who go mad from the strain, others die, as you have nearly done.

Burn this after you have finished reading, trust no one with the truth of your power and speak not of my suspicions of your race's lineage. There are other Amodia who have survived the tragedy that happened to my kind but most are either completely mad, corrupted and evil or both mad and evil.

May your hunts be always successful,

Jasper, One of the last of the Amosdia, one of the ancestors of the humans.

Mar looked around he saw no fireplace so tearing the letter up, he ate it. He dressed himself, took his hammer and went off to look for a melynx/felyne village in need of his protection.

Many years later...

It was a horrible storm, Mar's recently birthed son obviously thought so too, he was wailing loudly competing with the storm for loudness quite admirably. Mar smiled at his wife, Kioha, a beautiful blue felyne.

"Nya... He looks just like you Mar, all shining black, Nya I'm sure he'll grow to be as big and strong as you are..." Kioha said.

Mar nodded and beamed with pride at son.

The midwife washed her paws and said,

"Nya! well what are you too going to name him?" She asked.

Before Mar or Kioha could say a word an crash of thunder was heard and the door of their house burst inward. Rain fell into the house A large figure in a soaked robe crouched down and entered the house. Kioha and the mid-wife gasped as they saw the scaly face of the robed man.

Jasper smiled. "By the blood in your veins Maruku Kurakama, you must help me!" he pronounced.

The kitten half-felyne melynx stopped wailing.

Mar got up and put his armour on. He grabbed his bone hammer. He went over to Jasper.

"Mar!, that... man? Is he the one who saved your life, nya?" Kioha asked.

Mar, speechlessly nodded.

"Then go, nya, I was prepared for this... you never told me your past but... nya. I knew one day it would take you from me..."

Mar was about to exit along with Jasper when the midwife stopped them.

"Nya!!!! I have no idea what is going on, but even if your wife is letting you go, but nya! I'll be damned if I let you go before this child is named!" she said pointing to Mar's son.

Mar was about to speak when Jasper silenced him and knelt before Kioha.

"May I have the honour of naming this child, lady? He bears some of my blood..." Jasper requested.

The request was ridiculous, but there was something in the way jasper said it.

"If you tell me what you are, I may..."Kioha replied before Mar could object.

Jasper smiled, showing his fangs.

"I am of a race that once ruled this land long long ago, I am one of the last of my kind, more than that I will not say" Jasper

"Masters of old, to be named by such a thing... you may name my son" Kioha conceded.

Jasper placed a scaly hand on the child's furry forehead.

"I name this child Pixeulinju, after the greatest of the Amosdia's warriors who was only beaten through betrayal" Jasper said.

Kioha gave a beautiful laugh.

"What a difficult name!, I'll tell you what since my son is probably much smaller than this hero of yours we'll call him Pix!"

"Your wife is a smart woman, Mar!, now come we must not delay any longer" Jasper said to Mar.

Mar gave a long lingering look to Kioha and, with Jasper, left.

Mar followed the tall form of Jasper through the thunderstorm for a long time, finally Jasper stopped under the cover of a rock.

Mar was about ask what was going on when a woman with crimson red hair, wearing dark brown leathery armour and metal claws held in each hand.

"Grandfather, did you find the person you were looking for?"

"Yes Vynn, he is of my blood as are you, unlike you however he isn't naturally related, I gave him some of my blood to save him" Jasper answered.

Mar's mind boggled, grandfather?, that meant...

"Heh, just like you did with grandmother, cept in her case you married her, so I take it we can leave then?, I want to find my family and you your answers" Vynn said.

"Leave for where?" Mar asked.

Eyes shining in the dark Jasper told Mar.

"Why over the sea of course!"

Near the village where Kioha and Pix slept, the lone purple gypceros that had escaped Mar all those years ago shifted, soon soon it's chance for revenge would come, it would wait a while longer to make sure the melynx demon was gone, then it would strike...

Simeon Russk quickened his pace as he saw the smoke rising from the lyian village, he had been wandering bored for sometime now and the prospect of fighting something off and doing some good was greatly appealing. He drew his Iron longsword "Grace" and charged into the centre of the village. There standing amid carnage was a purple gypceros, it looked like the inhabitants of the village had put up a spectacular fight. Simeon could see that the purple gypceros hadn't been in the best of conditions when it had entered the fight, it had lost it's crystal some time ago, it had several old wounds some of which had opened up. The felynes and melynx had managed to cause some really nasty wounds.

Still there would be some fight in it, old ones are more experienced aswell. Simeon gave a manic grin and let out a howl that brought back horrible memories for the purple gypceros. Simeon was rather disappointed when the gypceros offered little challenge, a hop there , a roll here a bunch of slashes and then severing it's head when it played dead.

Simeon sighed, the battle had proved to be a huge disappointment.

"Oh well, time to look for survivors..." Simeon decided.

All Simeon found was a dying blue female felyne who handed him a very young unconscious half-melynx telling Simeon with her last words that the child's name was Pix and his father was a hunter, she told him to look after the child and then... she died.

So Simeon was left standing in a decimated village half-melynx in hand, unaware that he shared the same blood that ran in the young Pix's veins.

Blood calls to Blood.

__________

EXTRA: This backstory I did ages back, it is in terms of time happening about the same time as the first Pix story. It tells about Simeon Russk, the WarpedHunter and how he lost his arm.

As the wounded monoblos' horn pierced Simeon's left shoulder, Simeon decided that fighting a monoblos while wearing melahoa armour had been a bad idea.

Simeon gritted his teeth as the monoblos feebly tried to shake him off it's horn.

Simeon was a strange man, he was undoubtedly insane, he had killed a bulldrome with his bare hands once(losing a kidney in the process). He had ridden on the back of a Yian Kut-ku for a while (sustaining horrible injuries when he fell off while it was in the air). He could unpredictably go berserk even when among friends, not that he had many. He was happy to go with any group of hunters that would take him but he never stayed with any one group for long. He also had a monstrous appetite . Simeon although he was thoroughly and completely mad was a kindly soul, he helped the needy, gave to the poor and didn't let his prey suffer more than was necessary. He had even taken in a orphan half-melynx, Pix by name. Simeon was insane but good.

"Take this you oversized demonic chicken!!" As Simeon jammed his Devil Slicer into the eye socket and through to the brain of the monoblos, he decided the blade had been a good choice. The monoblos gave one last cry then toppled over- dead.

Simeon was under the head of the wyvern, he yelled out.

"Wuhoo!! now I can make that Crimson Scythe I wanted!, hell I can probably make some monoblos armour from this thing too... that is if I can ever get out from under it...

HELP!!! HELLO!!! ANYBODY!! I'M TRAPPED!!

Eventually some Felynes had found him and freed him, though his blade broke when he tried to take it out, he kept the handle as a lucky charm. When Simeon got back to Alicia, the oasis city of the desert, he had his now useless left arm amputated. He got his scythe and his monoblos armour. When asked how he would continue as a hunter he just smiled and said he would just have to get his remaining arm to be stronger. Indeed Simeon got so strong that he could wield his scythe in one hand with little difficulty (and a bit of imbalance)

Simeon's last act in Alicia before he went off to travel from village to village and city to city was to train Pix in the ways of a hunter.

Simeon gained many names, like ; The One Armed Wanderer, The Lone Scythe, The One-handed Demon and The Crimson Madness, But the one Simeon liked best was...

WARPED HUNTER

He was still pathetic against monoblos though...

_______

*Coughs*

Lineage wasn't my favorite, not by a longshot, I felt like it was needed though, which may have been a mistake...


	4. Alchemist's Brew

There's a big time-skip here, not sure how long. Also during the timeskip some of my characters were in another person's fanfic, Kai Hirogame( the guy's username) on the minegarde forums, you should be able to find his stuff there.

_________

"FIFTY THOUSAND ZENI!!!?!?!" Olywn Naol screamed. He looked again at the bill, the numbers were still the same, all four of the zeros remained. Olywn slumped in his seat. It had happened again, he had joined up with a hunting group, they had left him with their debts and then they vanished. Before Olwyn's teacher had died, he had never had any debt, when the old man, who had taught Olywn how to hunt, had died Olwyn had inherited the man's substantial debts worked up by the old crook's partying and revelry. Olwyn sometimes wondered how he had learnt any hunting skills from the senile loony at all.

Olywn was now a hunter who hunted to try and rid himself of the massive debts(now numbering in the millions) that weren't even his. He of course made little dent in the huge negative numbers that were upon his name. Olywn was a bit of a rookie but because of the debt he had to take high reward, high risk jobs. Often Olywn would go on a team to increase his chances of survival and success. Unfortunately he always seemed to end up with people who would saddle him with more debt and then disappear. What confused Olywn was that he always encountered these kinds of people, just when he thought he had found an honest hunter, the person would disappear leaving a load of debt behind.

Olwyn sighed and went over to the guild board, to yet again look for a quest in which he would almost certainly nearly get himself killed. There weren't many quests this day. Olwyn looked over them... most weren't high pay. Then he spotted one, a slaying quest... it was odd. The request was to slay something that had been spotted in the swamp, it was apparently possibly a khezu. Possibly a khezu? That was weird, Olwyn had heard of quests about undocumented monsters but...

Possibility a khezu? Weird.

The reward was huge, much, much more than a normal khezu quest would get... a good bit more than a G-rank red khezu quest too... Something sensible in the back of his mind told Olwyn that this request was extremely suspicious. Olwyn's debt told him that he needed the money, that he couldn't pass this up, a khezu he could handle himself and also that this would keep the debtors happy for a while.

Olwyn took the quest from the board and showed it to the guild maid.

"I'll take this quest"

The maid blushed at Olwyn's strong soft well-spoken lilting voice and at his elegant form. His long brown hair and his sparkling roguish blue eyes. Olwyn also had a killer smile and a face to charm birds from trees. Olwyn also wore khezu armour made in the style of the guild guard armour, which of course looked very dashing on him, though he had a bowmaster's khezu armguards. The maid involuntarily let her mouth open.

Olwyn waved a hand infront her face.

"Er.. Hallo I said I'd take this quest" He repeated.

"OH! Y-yes I'll s-s-stamp it off you go, go-g-good luck!" She stammered.

Olwyn gave her a smiled that almost made her faint and walked out.

A while after he had gone, the maid put the quest back up... unstamped.

A while after that a man in gunner's rathalos soul armour, with a strange sword at his side and melynx on his shoulder, wearing what looked like armour made from a rajang. The melynx had two swords.

This pair looked at the quest board, saw the "khezu" quest took it and the guild maiden marked it as accepted, the two left and this time the maid didn't put the quest back up.

Olwyn stopped in front of the cave, he was sure the khezu or whatever it was, was in this cave. He took his bow from his back, Death's Harp, he called it. It was a strange bow, having more than one string it doubled as a harp. Olwyn didn't know how it managed to work as a harp, he just followed the instructions he had found in a book belonging to his now dead teacher, the book was one of the few benefits of having been that man's pupil.

The bowharp was made from hard and flexible monster parts, khezu, some undocumented things detailed in the book and dragonwood. Olwyn had gotten the dragonwood from a shady looking felyne, it had costed a good bit and some rare monster parts. Olwyn didn't have a smith make the weapon, he made the thing himself from the instructions, it had been a labour of love, he made all his arrows himself too.

He put an arrow to his bow as he stepped through the darkness of the cave. Water dripped from above. Strange shuffling sounds started. Olwyn rolled just as an arch of lightening ripped past behind him. "What?" He thought, "Khezu only fire balls of electricity..."

Olwyn peered into to the darkness. His eyes widened. He was flung against a wall he screamed in pain as his body connected with the rock. Then he caught full sight of what he was fighting...

It looked like a khezu... but... electricity crackled on the arch of it's spine there was the fur of a Kirin there too, also instead of a pair of wings there was another pair of legs, and there were four kirin horns round the mouth. Olwyn knew that they were kirin horns as he had seen pictures of a kirin horn in a book once.

The Khezu-kir(Khezu-kirin) let out a scream, it was louder, more painful than any other khezu scream Olwyn had ever heard. Olwyn fell to his knees. The Khezu-kir wasted no time. Olwyn made a scream of his own as electricity tore it's way along his body. Smoking and stumbling he barely evaded the monster's charge as it thundered past.

"Damn, its fast" Olwyn thought. He put an arrow to his bow and fired it off. A musical trill sounded. Death's Harp wasn't a stealth weapon but it was powerful. The arrows fired from it always went deeper than other arrows. The Khezu-kir screeched in pain as the arrow dug deep into it's flesh. Olwyn brought his fingers across the strings of the bowharp planning to weaken the monster.

The Khezu-Kir swung it's head round and an arch of lightening flew from one of the kirin horns slamming Olwyn against a wall again. Olwyn screamed and cursed himself as his flesh burned, this was not a normal khezu he had to be more careful. It turned to face him. Olwyn put five arrows on his bow and let loose. Three bit into the Khezu-kir, the other two flying over it's back. Olwyn grinned.

The Khezu-kir stomped it's feet in irritation. It's body glowed as electricity ricocheted about it's body. Olwyn stopped grinning.

"Buggah"

Olwyn put his bow on his back and ran for his life. The Khezu-kir careened and slid past Olwyn several times and it frequently leapt at him. Olwyn jumped as it smashed into the wall beside him. Lightening stopped running along the Khezu-kir's body, though the arch of it's back still crackled.

It was round about then that Olwyn realised he was in range of the Khezu-kir's neck whip. He put up his arm up to offer a pitiful amount of protection. One of the kirin horns dug into it and he was, for the third time that fight, flung back against a wall. This time he crumpled into heap and did not rise.

Olwyn coughed up blood, this was bad he was going to die, killed by some freak khezu. As it came closer to Olwyn he saw that there were fine stitches all over it's body, the needlework was very good but it did not lessen the horror of it's presence.

As Olwyn felt it's hot breath on his body he thought, "If only I had enough time to use the musical powers of the bow I could of... no it was too fast... I don't want to die like this"

The Khezu-kir sniffed the air then it turned to the right, ignoring Olwyn. Olwyn turned his head to see what had grabbed the Khezu's attention.

In the light of the cave entrance were two figures a small one of a melynx or felyne and that of a man.

"Woah! Am I seeing things again or is that Khezu uglier than most, Pix?" The man said, drawing a sword that was bigger than normal sword but smaller than a greatsword, it was also rounded like a shield on one side, the purple glint to the metal betrayed the fact that the blade was poisonous, the man also took a pistol like-bow gun out from his belt. He was wearing silver soul armour but had goggles on his singed black hair rather than a helmet. The gun was called Demonspittle and the sword/shield Spiteful Aegis.

"Nya! No Elruk, this Khezu really is as ugly as it looks, nya I think we have a altered monster here!" said Pix, the half-melynx.

Pix was in armour made from rajang materials, it kind of made him look like a little demon. In Pix's hands were two wicked looking blades. An icy sword, which had a jagged edge on the back and a wrapped up cord at the bottom of the sword's pommel, and a fiery sword with razor sharp teeth on the reverse side that dripped paralysing fluid. Wintercall and Joltfire were their names.

Elruk fired his pistol as Pix unwrapped the cord of Wintercall and threw it, holding onto the cord.

Alchemist's Report extract:

"Things are progressing well, my allies over the sea have been a great help. My modifcations are almost seamless, I have failed with my other project again though. Perhaps it is impossible to create life from parts that are dead, I must look into finding ways of keeping the tissue living, ah so many problems in my path, It will all be worth it for me and all else."

"RAAAARRRGG!!" Pix roared as he leaped holding the cord of Wintercall. The Khezu-kir moaned as Wintercall tore through it's skin, chilling it's flesh. It turned it's head to strike Pix who was whirling around carving chunks off the Khezu-kir and laughing. Elruk peppered it with shots causing it to flinch an opportunity Pix did not waste. He rapidly spun wintercall faster and faster, a red glow appeared as he demon charged it.

Pix threw, one of the Khezu-kir's legs tumbled away. It was momentarily unbalanced.

"Elruk! Nya! One of your specialities!"

Elruk smiled. He quickly emptied his bowpistol and loaded in a bullet that seemed to shake and quiver.

"Doomshot this time I think!"

Elruk grabbed his gun in both hands and fired, the force of the shot sent him flying backwards. The Khezu-kir fell on it's side a hole through it, blood pumping out. The Khezu was falling quickly under the furious assault of Pix and Elruk's teamwork.

"Nya! Your swordsheild, nya let's do what we learned from Kai Hirogame!!" Pix ordered.

Elruk got up from the ground, he put his bowpistol in his belt and grabbed Spiteful Aegis, he held it out behind him. Pix jumped on top of it.

"Mirage combo! Melynx Missile version!" Elruk shouted.

"Nya! Do you have to say that every time we do this?"

"It ain't properly badass if I don't say the name!"

"Nya... alright... FIRE!!!"

Pix was quite like a missile as he spun towards the Khezu-kir hurtling through the air. He had almost reached the Khezu-kir.

Pix fell down his body smoking, small archs of electricity still jumping about on his body. The Khezu-kir gave an ear-splitting screech.

"PIX!!" Elruk yelled.

He ran and slid infront of Pix slamming Spiteful Aegis before them both.

"Pix get up, It isn't dead yet!"

Pix moaned and opened his eyes, they glowed red.

"Cover me"

Elruk began to fire, hitting the points on the Khezu-kir what would make it flinch the most.

Pix rushed towards the Khezu-kir, it fired arcs of lightening from it's kirin horns at him. Pix leapt about nimbly avoiding each one.

Then he came to it, he slashed with the back of Joltfire. Skin, muscle and bone were torn apart by the viscous teeth on the blade. The Khezu-Kir whipped it neck at Pix, who ducked and jumped.

Slashing as went under. Pix rolled as electricity surrounded it's body. Elruk took this opportunity to run forward. The electricity died down and when it did the Khezu-kir was greeted by Elruk's Spiteful Aegis.

"Haah!!"

Elruk's blade poisoned the altered monster quickly. It screeched in rage at this, going into rage.

Again electricity crackled around it's body. Pix and Elruk rolled away sure they were safe.

But this time, the electricity left the Khezu-kir's body spreading out in a shockwave. Pix and Elruk yelled in agony as they were electrocuted.

Olwyn tried to clear his head, There were two hunters, they were good but things weren't going well. Olywn tried to move his right arm, no good, it was busted.

_I can't fire any arrows like this so that leaves..._

Balancing Death's harp under his chin, he put his working hand to the strings.

"Thirteenth Sonata, Discordia..." Murmured Olwyn.

The Khezu-Kir had limped over to Pix and Elruk prepared to deliver deathblows to them. Pix and Elruk's bodies were paralysed by the lighting attacks. The Khezu lowered it's head. It froze.

An unreal music started to flow, Pix and Elruk felt strength come back to their bodies. The hastily got up backing away from the Khezu-kir, wondering what was going on. The Khezu-Kir was still, entranced my the sheer beauty of the music...

Then it all changed.

Even note was... wrong. Each sound imperfect. Every thing about it was broken and twisted. It was more than bad music, or poorly played music. It was terrifying, with it everything seemed bound to failure. All everything for naught. Torturous, painful. It grated on the soul, struck every wrong nerve. The wrongness was such that you felt defiled and torn apart by it. It fed on your very being consuming, plaguing. There was no escape from it. Pix and Elruk covered their ears. The effect was lessened. They still felt they were experiencing some sort of hell though.

The Khezu-Kir writhed on the ground, it's wounds seemed to be getting worse. Blood was spurting out. It screamed continually. Thrashing back and forth, pounding the ground with it's head. Pix wanted to put the thing out of it's misery but...

He couldn't move his paws from his ears. He was too frightened of the full force of the music, it was horrible what he could still hear with his paws over his ears but...

Pix looked around, he wanted to know where the music was coming from. Pix spotted the source and blinked.

_What in the?_

For a moment, Pix thought he saw the horned, slight beautiful form of a Niñ. But it must have been a combination of the music and the electric shocks. It was just a badly wounded human in armour made from khezu, playing a harp with one hand.

_Wait a moment, one hand and this comes from the instrument! What can he do with two?_

Pix then realized that the man must be enduring the full force of the music he was making too.

The music cut off, the man's hand fell from the harp, the fingertips frayed almost to the bone.

The man fell, slumping on his side.

"Make use of this, kill it" He croaked out.

Pix was about to nod, but... the Khezu-kir had gone silent. Pix spun round to see it's head raised in the air a huge ball of lightening forming above it's head being made bigger and bigger by the kirin horns.

"Shit" said Elruk, "Guess this here is the end of the line"

A huge Axe on a pole slammed into the neck of the Khezu-Kir. The ball of lightening broke, lightening struck all over the place. The Khezu-Kir fell, Axe half way through it's neck.

A clanking sound. Three battered hunters looked at the new arrival, who had delivered the death blow to the khezu-kir by throwing a massive axe. It was a colossal towering form. This absurdly massive hunter was clad in thick armour that covered every part of the body. The hunter seemed more like a powerful construct rather than a human. The armour was definitely custom made, it didn't conform to any guild pattern, strange as it seemed, a kind of dark silver gravios shell seemed to be involved with the composition of the armour. Pix was sure that there were many undocumented monster parts as well as documented parts in it. He was also sure that it would take a weak elder dragon a while to begin to scratch it.

Elruk wanted to look at the armour closer, even from a distance he could tell it was incredibly strong, there was even black fatalis scales in it. Looking hard, he deduced that it was from a much earlier hunting period, armour like that was almost certainly a heirloom. Very valuable, probably loads of rare materials, it was probably made using some of the lost crafting arts... The sheer amount of ancient knowledge locked in that armour! Elruk involuntarily began to drool slightly.

The heavily armoured hunter clanked over to the Khezu-kir and ripped the axe out. The hunter shook the axe with one hand, getting the blood off of it.

_An axe that size in one hand? I don't care how big that hunter is, that axe, he must be using demonpower the same way as Warped... _Pix wondered.

"My, my, that was nasty, good thing I came along when I did, still I wouldn't have liked to fight that while it was at full strength, good thing it was nearly dead" The hunter's voice was metallic, bearing no other traits other than that of a voice echoed off metal.

The hunter turned to Pix and Elruk.

"Hey you two! What was that thing, you no anything about it? Don't hide anything from me!"

The atmosphere seemed to get heavy around the armoured hunter. The hunter seemed very tall and frightening. Pix was inexplicably reminded of Raei, in one of her scary "I'll skin you alive" moments.

Elruk glanced at Pix, who shook his head.

"Nya! Tell us who you are first" Pix ordered.

The hunter didn't move or speak. Pix for a moment got the uneasy feeling that the hunter was considering causing grievous bodily harm in order to get information. There was a loud clanging as the ridiculously huge axe hit the ground. The armoured hunter reached for the helmet.

Three voices spoke as one.

"A WOMAN!?!?!"

The armoured hunter was in fact a huntress! The woman before them had very dark skin, locks of hair that were as black as night tumbled from the helm. She had violet eyes and was very beautiful.

All in all quite a shocker.

"I am Sulvia "Strongarm" Nahlor, an ex-guild knight, I left because I was ordered not to look into the appearances of these monsters, now, tell me what you know!" Sulvia voice was deep husky and most certainly female.

"Well, it all started ...." Pix stopped talking, a look of disbelief on his furry face.

Sulvia frowned, "What's wrong, heh, cat got your tongue?"

"I... I don't believe it... not possible, it was dead... but now it's moving!" Olwyn said, fear on his face.

Alchemist report extract:

My friends over the seas have been a great help, this is most suspicious, I do not trust them, their agendas are unknown to me... I shall make use of them all the same, when they try to betray me as I am sure they will. It will be too late for them. Some of the things that I have acquired from them however are truly amazing, some very odd monster parts, possibly of monsters that are completely unrelated to our ones... The thing that I am most pleased about however is this new thread I have gotten from them. I must force the secret of it's making from my untrustworthy allies. They call the thread , Acirda Vival: living cord. I have examined the cord , it is not living but it does have a very strange cell composition. My allies say that is the result of voodoo, I find this amusing, their voodoo is hilariously similar to this land's alchemy, though there is more ritual involved in the voodoo, it is not magic.

I am a bit annoyed , they have forgotten their actual formulae and gotten caught up in their rituals, separating the real art from the flashy fakery is proving to be very difficult...

Savage fools, bah well what I have learned has been of great improvement to my creatures.

If I could find out the secret of the Acirda Vival it would greatly speed up my research...

Curse those blood crazed savage idiots!!

"Why? Why? It's head was nearly severed so why? WHY IS IT GETTING BACK UP!!!" Elruk yelled.

The Khezu-kir was indeed rising, more horrifying than this it's head and neck were being stitched back. Threads or cords were slipping out from under the skin and pulling both sides of the wound back together. It was disgusting all those strands moving and writhing about.

"It's doesn't matter that it can stitch itself up, with the amount of blood lost..." Pix said, trying to reassure himself.

The Khezu-kir wobbled over to where it's severed leg had fallen.

"It's going to reattach it's leg, Pix stop it!" Elruk yelled.

Pix demon jumped just as the cords were connecting the Khezu-kir's leg to it's stump.

He tore it to pieces.

"Ha! Can't join it back up if it's not there, Nya!" Pix laughed victoriously.

Sulvia put her helmet back on and rushed over to the Khezu-kir grabbing it's jaws with her gauntleted hands.

"Hey cat! Attack this thing's back while I break it's horns!" She commanded to Pix.

Pix disliked being ordered around by a complete stranger but this wasn't the time, they needed to defeat this thing. Pix swung Wintercall above his head as he did so he shouted back to Elruk.

"Nya, Cover us Elruk! O.K.!" He yelled.

"Right but next time I get to try out some of my experiments, I hate only doing covering fire." Elruk replied, slamming down his shield and firing his bowpistol.

The Khezu-kir tried to charge one of it's horns.

"I don't think so!" Sulvia grabbed the horn and lightening skittering across her armour she snapped it. Pix grinned as Wintercall sunk into the back of the Khezu-kir. He tugged the cord, then he began to climb using Joltfire and the cord of Wintercall. Sulvia put her hands inside of the Khezu-kir mouth, and began to rip it's jaws apart, seeming to ignore the lightening it was firing across her.

There was a gritty snap... Sulvia stopped and Pix jumped down. This time it was dead for good.

Sulvia staggered away, Pix slowly followed. Sulvia pulled her helmet off.

"Nya, you just tore a Khezu's jaws apart... nya... What kind of demon power do you use?"

Sulvia turned and faced Pix.

"Demonpower? I don't use anything like that, I'm all natural, everything with my own human strength and my armour" Sulvia said.

_You've got to be kidding me!_

Pix fell to his knees.

"Nya... but what about all that lightening that you ignored?"

Sulvia bashed a hand against her breastplate.

"Nothing can harm this armour that has been passed down the Nahlor line" She proudly said.

Light burst from the armour and Sulvia fell smoke coming out of her armour.

Pix swung round, but the khezu-kir was still dead. Elruk walked over to Sulvia, he turned her head from side to side.

"Well, she's still alive but... what happened?" Elruk asked.

"Nya... I don't know... one moment she was boasting about her armour, nya the next she lights ups like a firework!" Pix said slowly puzzled by this great mystery.

Elruk looked the armour over.

"Well she was right about the armour, there isn't a scratch or a even a mark on it... amazing!"Elruk said eyes glittering with glee.

"Nya, yeah ok, armour fine, that just makes this situation weirder, nya I guess I'll have to carry her..." Pix said.

"Uhhh, hey... what about me, I'm bleeding to death here..."Olwyn croaked.

Pix and Elruk slowly turned their heads in Olwyn's direction.

"AHHHH!!!!!! Half-dead scary musician!!!!!" They both screamed.

"We'll help, you just don't play that... music infront of us again!"

Elruk carefully carried Olwyn and Pix, demonizing, carried Sulvia. When they were free of the cave Elruk fired a flare for the balloon.

Sulvia awoke to murmuring voices.

"I have to say I wasn't expecting her to have this kind of body, I was thinking she would have one of those muscular man-woman bodies, but she's really shapely and stuff, really woman-like, cept larger size , of course she has a beautiful face and glorious hair to go with it. Whoo, she's like a goddess"

There was the sound of a frying pan hitting a person's face.

"Nyarrr!!! There shouldn't be men in a sleeping woman's room, nya Pix, I don't know why you let Elruk in here! Pull a stunt like this again and I'll mince you and make a taco! Nya! Now GET OUT!!!!"

There was more pan clanging.

"Nya!!! out you scruffy pervert out!!!!, Take the girly musician with you too!"

"What!!! I'm a man!"Olwyn protested.

There was another clang. "I didn't say you were a girl, I said you were girly, now... OUT!!!"

Sulvia, got up, she was indeed a beautiful woman a fact that was plain when she didn't have her armour on... she was still huge though.

There was a large yellow felyne holding a frying pan at the foot of Sulvia's bed.

"Um sorry but... who are you and where am I?" Sulvia asked.

"Ah you're awake! Pix has a good few questions for you, I'm Raei, his felyne chef, you're in the inn rooms we are renting"Raei said, holding out a paw.

The door creaked open and Elruk popped his head in.

"Huu~ She's awake?"

Raei threw her frying pan, hitting Elruk square in the face, who crumpled in a heap. Pix hopped over Elruk's prone body.

"Well nya, Sulvia was it? You tell us what you know and we'll tell you what we know.

_________

At the time of me doing this, I lost my internet connection for an extended period of time, so for a very long time, I wasn't writing it, I might someday go back to it... but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you...


End file.
